Scene #3751: A Place in The Sun

Owner	Pose
Amaterasu	Gensokyo has been beset by a sudden hot spell from nearly out of nowhere(+bbread 23/5). The heat is intense, waves from the sun rolling over the land below with impunity. The situation has created one of the laziest situations in recent memory. People and youkai and doing everything they can to stay cool, business has slowed to a crawl, and while isolated incidents have basically been reduced to nil, disregarding the occasionally happily frolicking fire elemental fairy or youkai, it's been universally agreed that this state of things isn't acceptable. As such, it was decided from all over that this needed to be stopped. Somehow, someway. And there was only one clue; the floating land that has appeared in the skies above. Seemingly abandoned, and forested on all sides, fairies and lesser youkai have flown up out of curiosity only to be turned back every time. Apparently by the wildlife itself? With those failures taken into account, it becomes clear that a more elite group of people will be needed to investigate. Whoever you are, wherever you came from, you are here now. Whether or not you can fly yourself, or if you arrived via some other manner such as with the help of a youkai, some type or vehicle, or whatever, you have arrived at the beginning of the island. It's a grassy plain, with stone pillars littered about. Some are fallen, some are intact, and some are broken. There are also ruined building foundations here and there, having been reclaimed by nature over a very, very long period of time. This scenery stretches into the distance. ...Rather underwhelming, considering the sweltering heat currently plaguing Gensokyo, and this place being the only clue as to why.
Sarah Parsle	There is a flash of light as Sarah Parsle arrives, having been beamed down after hitching a ride with the Flotilla. She is clad in a semi-professional looking suitvest, blouse, and slacks this time, though she insists on wearing that bronze-colored bandanna which completely ruins the look. She's also wearing a pair of sunglasses and a wide-brimmed sippy straw hat, with the straw running down next to her mouth. There is a long moment as she looks around, taking it all in. "This place sucks." She pronounces. "What are we supposed to do, wander until we happen to find something we can check?"
Fujiwara no Mokou	EARLIER, BAMBOO FOREST. "What do you mean she's not coming?! Oh so she's snobbing me now?!" Mokou, furious, asks of one of her friends, who attempts to calm her down. "N-Now now, Mokou, I'm sure she has a reason..." "I AM NOT PUTTING UP WITH HER SNOBBING ME, KEINE! SLIGHTLY LESS EARLIER, EIENTEI. "KAGUYA, GET THE HELL OUT HERE!" Mokou shouts, slamming on the door. Out of a window peeks the black-haired princess, staring down. "It's too hot, go bother someone else," she lazily yawns, and then disappears back into the window. "Wh... KAGUYA!!!!" NOW. "Stupid bloody heat, getting in the way of my everything. Why hasn't the crazy shrine maiden taken care of this yet? Or the witch? Uuuuugh!" Mokou slumps against a stack of cut bamboo, grousing. Her eyes catch sight of the land in the sky, that she'd paid no mind so far. It really wasn't any of her business! But now it kind of is. It's Interfering. "Keine! I'm going out to do the miko's job for her. You keep... just laying there getting a tan, I guess." ACTUALLY NOW. Now you know why Fujiwara no Mokou has flown up towards this land, hands in her pockets. She herself isn't too bothered by the heat, thanks to the fire resistance charms all over her pants (literally). Luck has it she stumbles across Sarah in time to answer, landing by her. "Judging by how the shrine maiden usually handles this, that's actually exactly what we do. Oh, and then we beat up the problem."
Chica Mendez	Misadventures in a magical land! Mystical creatures in desperate need! Everyone was trapped in a heat wave that made them wither!... It all sounds like a bad kid's trid. After the work she'd done last night, Chica decided to come pay a visit to this bare-faced, and not in the usual armor she wore. Instead, she's arrived looking like a proper Aztec priestess in traditional formal garb, colored in purples, greens, and blacks. Really, she's just missing the headdress... and she has her Ares Predator pistol strapped to her thigh. This strange woman is unbothered by the heat, moving around confidently until she can find someone in the village who she can bully and pay into giving her a lift up to the strange floating land above them. Chica spent much of her life in Tenochtitlan, after all, trapped in Aztlan's heat and the greenhouse effect of all the pollution there! The view at the top is actually pretty idylic, all things considered, but there had to be a reason why things were going so far out of wack. Once Chica spots someone else arriving, she starts to trot over, only to grin widely when she hears who it is. "Well well, Sarah Parsle. I figured I'd have a job for you, but I didn't think we'd work together." She pauses, and frowns. "I can start scanning Astral to see if it's magic that's causing this, and where it's coming from. Assuming that works. I'm not sure how poewrful something has to be to make this whole place float and summon this much heat." But, now that she mentioned it, she might as well. She starts to use her Astral perception to scan the land, maybe see if there was something magically of interest here.
Yuna Kagurazaka	Normally, Yuna likes the summer ... well, she tends to like all of the seasons, but summer is when you can go to the beach with friends, go to the amusement park, work on your suntan if you're so inclined, and so forth. But every season has its place, or more accurately, its time ... and as far as she knows, it should still be winter in Gensokyo. So she's curious enough to go and check things out ... and given what she's seen in Gensokyo in the past, she made sure to bring Erina of the Sky along. And this is exactly why: almost no situation in Gensokyo remains ground-bound for long, so the ability to fly is typically an advantage. Sure enough, Yuna's in Flight Form as she approaches the grassy plain; Elner is tagging along with her - and the other two members of the Matrix of Light are holding back but remain on standby, just in case something requires Yuna to swap forms on short-but-not-instantaneous notice.
Theo Morrison	Theo's exposure to the residents of Gensokyo has been... kind of strange. He found himself wondering if Marisa was the norm. Given that any sort of society where Marisa Kirisame is the baseline member couldn't possibly function, he assumes she's a statistical outlier instead, and has come here to prove it. And help with the heat thing. That's pretty important, too. MINUTES AGO ON THE ACTUAL GROUND, NOT THE FLYING GROUND "Man... that's a problem." Theo sighs a little, looking up. He's wearing sunglasses and a floppy-brimmed kind of hat with an Angel's Feather card stuck in the band (because feathers in caps and all). Next to him, Kickotron, Myr Servitor Extraordinaire, is wearing a baseball cap that only kind of fits him, and gleaming in the sunlight especially brightly. He's hard to look at. "Alright, well... I guess we'd better get up there." He shuffles a deck of cards in his hands, almost ominously. He flips a card down, a practice game in fast-forward. "Urza's Tower! Expedition Map! Pass!" Draw, play. "Urza's Tower! Sac the map! Pass!" Draw, play. "Urza's Tower! Pass...!" And that's about when the earthquake started. RIGHT ABOUT NOW THE FLYING KIND OF LAND Theo steps off the top of the absurdly-huge spire of artifice and hubris, hopping the tiny gap seperating it from the floating land-mass. It got just as big as he needed it, and, as expected, Urza was the kind of guy to include an artifact elevator when he built that big. Way easier than risking flying. He gets away from the edge, and calls over his shoulder, "Gee gee," just as Kickotron clears the gap behind him. The tower disappears, like it was never there, fading away in mana and misty Aether. Weird. Theo shuffles up his deck again, walking straight on forward to check out those pillars. "I'm not sure beating up the problem is strictly necessary, but if that's how it works, that's how it works." He does not sass Chica on his way past. Kickotron silently judges her, though, insomuch as a mute bird robot lacking facial expression can appear to judge someone.
Marisa Kirisame	GENSOKYO IS TOO DAMN HOT It's taken a few weeks of preparation (read: beating up Letty for ice) and careful engineering, but one of Gensokyo's resident problem solvers has finally decided to do something about all this unseasonably warm weather. It's not like she's exactly the biggest fan of winter either, but this is just weird! And when the winter Youkai get uppity, spring starts looking like a whole season of hard work. In other words, for Marisa Kirisame, it's laser time. Her home in the Forest of Magic has been converted into a makeshift staging ground for... something very obviously far bigger than anything Kirisame Marisa has been seen working on before. There are tarps strewn up all over the place, covering the small clearing that sits in front of her house almost Clearly, with the dire nature of this situation, it was time for Gensokyo's greatest laserwitch to break out the biggest guns she could get her paws on. As other investigators begin swarming over the floating island, ~SOMETHING~ begins to rise out of the Forest of Magic. It's not anything that can be described as 'alive,' or even at all native to Gensokyo. The thing resembles a gigantic, jet-black fighter plane, if that fighter plane was also a bird of prey and ALSO a giant robot. The wind howls like a cyclone as it darts into the sky, tearing through the oversized tarps and sheets that Marisa had used to cover it. This... Is the DEUS MACHINA - LORD BYAKHEE. But why? Why, when Marisa has taken to battle against a subterranean sun in nothing but a dangerously fashionable witch's uniform does she choose now to break out a giant robot? The answer is simple. Marisa sits in the cockpit, her hands on the controls. Right next to her is a young looking maiden with deep purple hair. And over top of them, stirring their hair and their clothes... Is an air conditioning vent. "ALRIGHT," Marisa roars triumphantly as her wonderfully comfortable Deus Machina darts towards the floating island. "It might be a little harder to dodge in something this huge, but screw it, I'm giving it a shot!" The Celaeno Fragments mutters something about using her tremendous eldritch power for the sake of a single air conditioning unit, but she stops when she remembers what it's like outside of the cockpit. Imagine, if you would, two faces sighing into an electric fan, forever. When the alternative is misery, a little egregious use of power is acceptable, isn't it?
Sanae Kochiya	SOME TIME EARLIER: The fatigue from the heat hasn't passed at the Moriya shrine, either. With everyone preferring to stay inside, it's getting hard to drive faith traffic, as well. Sanae, still dressed in her ceremonial robes despite the heat for professionalism's sake, nonetheless strides into the living area of the two patron goddesses. Kanako is slumped and definitely dressed down, though not immodest, with a popsicle hanging out of her mouth as she almost looks like she's passed out. Suwako is down on all fours, frog-like, and with her face directly in an electric fan. The priestess simply gives a shake of her head, as though this has become a common scene lately, and for one of several times wonders, "Is it okay for me to go off standby, now? Or is the deal with the tengu still more important?" Kanako barely gets one eye open, and despite her current posture manages to sound official about it, "I suppose it cannot be helped, Sanae. Find out the identity of the interlopers, and punish them." Then she returns to lounging. Suwako drones, "Good luck," into the fan blades, causing her voice to sound as one might imagine. AND NOW: A green and blue dot from the direction of Youkai Mountain's summit approaches the island. This is one of the times she wishes she was one of the Gensokyo residents equipped with a parasol, as in mid-air, there is little defense against the radiant heat, except the air rushing over her. "Ah...it's so hot out here," she mumbles; even though she's high in the air, the heat is causing faint glimmers in the air, casting shapes and reflections around. It makes her momentarily wonder if the island is even real, or just some distant land beyond the border being reflected as a mirage. Yet, the closer she gets, the more solid it seems. As does another, certain shape just beyond it, from her vantage point. She has to raise a detached sleeved arm to rub at her eyes absently. "Was that a robot glinting in the sun," she wonders? "--n-no, I won't be fooled again! It's probably just the Kappa testing something! A trick of the light!" With that resolved, at least for the moment, she continues her approach, before setting her feet down on the mysterious land mass, itself.
Amaterasu	The players have gathered. Through various means, they have arrived and are here now. Then it is time to begin. Off in some unspoken corner of this place, two figures chuckle to themselves. "Hehehe, hey bro, what do we to now? Wanna tangle em up and toss em out?" Another, identical voice responded. "No way, don't be so hasty! ...We gotta see what they do first. Let's watch." And so to the new arrivals, nothing seemed out of place yet. Chica's scan of the area reveals the obvious: That there is a metric boatload of magic permeating through this place. It's not loud and obnoxious, no flares of power or anything dramatic. But it's there, and it's plentiful. So much so, that it's hard to even pinpoint an origin point. It's just spread all over. As the group made their first steps into this grassy plain, studying the environment, the ground subtly shifts, at least for those walking. For those in the air, there is a shift in the wind as it changes direction... Something is about to happen, but there's no one here, perpetrating it. At least not yet. Will you sense it? If so, how will you respond?
Sarah Parsle	Sarah doesn't look surprised to see Fujiwara drop in next to her. She looks over at the human(?) and rolls her shoulders in a mid-level shrug. "Well, you can blow it up. I suck at fighting." What's she going to do, annoy them to death? The towering arrival of Theo causes Sarah to look over her shoulder at the planeswalker and she pauses for a moment, glancing over her shades at him. "Nice." She says, then also greets Chica. "Hey lady. How is rampant paranoia today? Good to see you though." That's when Marisa shows up in a mecha, and as her voice echoes out, Sarah groans. "Oh Gods. The Laser Witch. Did I piss off the Redeemer or something?" Still, everyone is gathered. "Okay everyone, let's wander forward and see what's going to come make our lives miserable. As they move, Sarah pauses, noticing the shift in wind direction and the ground. "... Huh." She says... And then she suddenly says over her shoulder, "Scatter." Moments before she begins bolting for the nearest cover to dive behind it. She's got a Bad Feeling About This.
Yuna Kagurazaka	At least there are some familiar faces in the group; Yuna recognizes Theo (and Kickotron) from a number of crises, most recently (or at least ofremost in her recollection) being the resolution of the Black Lodge incident(s) in Arkham City, and beyond. WAY beyond in some cases. Lord Byakhee is also recognizable from that incident - although Yuna starts to flinch back from the sight of it before she hears Marisa's voice coming from it. "Oh, right," Yuna muses with a wry smile. "She looted that off of the little twerp who used to use it, didn't she?" Definitely an improvement in ownership, if you were to ask her. The blonde also recognizes Sarah Parsle, and Yuna comes in to land - or, well, hover a couple of inches off the ground - somewhere between her and Theo. She barely has time to wave, and doesn't have time to greet anyone, before Sarah abruptly bolts for cover. "Eh? What's ...." The wind did just change, didn't it? And if this is the source of the heat - well, that 'if' is the reason why everyone's here to investigate, isn't it? Yuna makes a face briefly, then ascends into the air again, coming to a hover about where Lord Byakhee's waist would be if the Deus Machina were standing still. "If anyone's there to hear us," Yuna calls out, "we're just looking for clues and hopefully answers about why it's gotten so hot in Gensokyo. We'd prefer to just ask questions and get the answers, or a tip in the right direction; if you insist on fighting us - whether it's a friendly duel or a serious battle - could you at least say that's what you want before you open up on us?" Yuna tries briefly to suppress a grin. "I mean, I know easy wins have their fun points, but if you want a fight, playful or otherwise, it will be more satisfying overall if we're able to dodge or defend ourselves from the get-go, won't it?"
Chica Mendez	Wow. In Chica's eyes, the myriad colors of magic dance everywhere she can see, swirling and shifting in ways that start to make Chica feel sickened and entranced at the same time. Once she's gotten the picture of the place, the elf shuts off her Perception and takes a moment to hold her head in her hands. There's some quiet muttering in Spanish that translates into some very rude statements before she finally can get her head straight and start walking. "So, bad news. There's magic here, alright--a lot. Way too much. I can't get a bead on where it might be coming from." Time for some probably unlikely theories. "This place could be it's own leyline, or have it's own so close together I can't decipher the signals. Or... Someone or something is putting out a lot of power on purpose to disguise what might be happening up here. I can't know for sure." To compound her irritation, /someone/ thought it'd be a great idea to bring out a giant flying mech. When the shadowrunner hears the initial sound, she goes for her gun, then holsters it with an annoyed sound when Sarah confirms who it is. "If you think I'm that paranoid, hermana, you should see the people I work for. I say after we get all of this done we sneak into that woman's place and start stealing dangerous magical impliments before she murders the village." Theo didn't sass her! How nice. Still, Chica shoots the cardster a wink and a blown kiss. He may or may not see it--it didn't matter. She sadly didn't know the rest of them, but that's not so bad. Given that Chica's actively trying to make sure they don't get ambushed, she feels the small tremble in the ground, and slowly tilts her head. "... Something's happening," she grunts quietly. Dragging her Ares Predator out of the holster again, the shadowrunner starts advancing slowly, trying to watch out around her.
Fujiwara no Mokou	Marisa's voice attracts more attention from Mokou than the shift in the wind. It's not that she doesn't feel it (it's basically impossible for her not to feel wind shifts with her hair), it's that the witch's voice is LOUD AND ECHOING. Then when she turns, it is a giant robot. Mokou would very much like to fling something right now, but settles for frowning, glaring daggers at the witch's machine. "The one day I get tired of you and the miko not doing your job, you and another miko show up. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you." A deep sigh. She needs to calm down. This is hard because the heat has in fact completely ruined her ability to act on a grudge and get it out of her system, though. With Sarah having dived for cover, she decides to pay attention to that inside. Surely the witch business will... work itself out. Though she takes a moment to tell Yuna: "There's no such thing as a person in Gensokyo who will tell you what they're up to without a fight. It's the standard greeting here, you know?" Right, back to Sarah. "You know, Danmaku isn't lethal, right? Unless these guys are disobeying the rules, but not even the Scarlet vampires disobey the rules. And one of them's supposedly completely insane." Though, you CAN get permission to disobey the rules... like in the case of fighting an immortal, where it doesn't matter. She hopes Marisa keeps her mouth shut on that.
Marisa Kirisame	What? Negotiating with terroris-- I mean, incident-causers!? What kind of place do you people think this is, Gensokyo - Canada? "Man, this is just weird. You guys really don't know how things're done around here, do you?" The Lord Byakhee levels its GIGANTIC RIFLE at the vague direction of the floating landmass. "This is Gensokyo! We shoot first, THEN ask questions. That's how it works. It's tradition!" And that there is Mokou! Within her mighty magical throne inside the Lord Byakhee's cockpit, the world-famous laserwitch can't help but grin. "You're just jealous that I've got this awesome, air conditioned fighting robot. Honest though, I tried to get Reimu to come out, but she just told me somethin' about contracts and not gettin' paid enough for this shit." This may or may not be a lie. It's sort of hard to tell with her. "Anyway, don't you guys worry! I'm here now, and I brought the BIG GUNS." Lord Byakhee's rifle sparkles, then. You can even hear it. It's a sharp, clean, twing~ sort of sound. But she can show off her giant gun later. There is mischief afoot. Marisa feels the wind shift from within he giant robot. Don't ask too many questions about how- the Lord Byakhee is a super robot that plays all kinds of havoc with the weather, it's well within its vague area of expertise. Marisa's eyebrow twitches as she feels that telltale sensation of INCOMING BAD THING. "Oh, we're not just gonna sit around for that," she mutters and sweeps her hands in a vaguely mystical gesture. The Lord Byakhee's eyes flash. Four enormous, vaguely octagonal shapes come away from its back and shoulders, and begin floating in formation around it. "Let's cool things off a bit, huh?" Marisa grins, flexing that mental muscle that acts as the trigger to so many of her spells. Each of those octagons flash a deep, cool blue color, and then start spewing cones of frigid air across the rolling green plains. The net effect is... actually pretty comfortable, all things considered, but getting too close to those cones is probably not the best idea. "Come on out and fight, you bastards," Marisa roars, "I know you're out there! Let's cut the crap and get this done!"
Sanae Kochiya	Though she is able to fly, Sanae usually prefers to preserve her power when she can. This island presented a seeming opportunity to set her feet down, though when she feels the levitated ground beneath her subtly shift, she makes a mental note to have her wind gathered around her, to catch her should it prove necessary. Speaking of the wind, though, something feels a bit strange about that, as well, and she doesn't even need her contact with wind spirits to be able to tell. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," she says aloud, to noone in particular. To keep something of this size aloft would take strong power of some sort, and wind would certainly fit the bill. From talking with a few of the low-level youkai and fairies that had gone to get a closer look, though they aren't that easy to get cohesive information from, she wasn't going into this blind, either. Something had driven them off of this place, and with these shifts, it is likely only a matter of time before whatever it was shows up to challenge the intruders. Normally she would walk and hover right off to find the source, but she finally comes out of her momentary, ponderous trance to note that other Elites did make the trip. So it wasn't all just mirages! "Ah, I'd welcome any newcomers to Gensokyo," she would allow, since there are a few unfamiliar faces among them, "But I suppose that will have to wait, for now." She raises one of her sleeves again to shade away some of the intense heat, and it's then that she confirms something else from earlier, "Ah, so it was a robot!!" She drifts closer to it, completely neglecting to take any cover or evasive posture in the process, and completely lost in the moment. Plus it casts a big shadow, that's useful with Gensokyo in this state. Then she freezes in place, "Ma-Marisa?" Her look of enthusiasm fades a few degrees, though she manages to not look too hurt, "You had a robot? And I didn't know...ahh..." She shuffles a foot, "Well, I'll get you to tell me about it later." For now, she has to concede the point from Mokou. "Y-yes," she informs Yuna. "Miss Mokou is right. They might sometimes talk beforehand, but it's usually to gloat. It's just kind of the way of things, around here. You usually have to beat whatever secrets they have out of them." After a beat, she adds, "With spell cards, of course! So it's not like anyone gets seriously hurt." She obviously hasn't personally seen Mokou and Kaguya go at it, yet. She then gets distracted by Chica's analysis, for a moment, giving a nod of her head; "You would need quite a lot to power a floating island! Even in a world like this. This thing is a personal challenge of some kind, there's no mistaking it!" Marisa seems to be taking that a bit too closely to heart, suddenly, however, which causes Sanae to bolt upright. "Miss Marisa, there is no need to draw them out all at once!" Though they do have quite some numbers gathered here. She draws her wand out at the ready, and hovers anew, glancing around.
Theo Morrison	Theo adjusts his Angel Feather (card)-bearing cap, grinning in Sarah's direction. "Thanks; I thought it was easier than flying --" And then Marisa promptly shows him up by having a giant robot, which tends to trump cool magitech towers. He shoots a look at Yuna, shrugging at the familiar blonde girl. "Didn't know she knew how to /use/ it..." Chica gets a quirked brow and a slightly unamused look as Theo takes Sarah's advice and heads to cover. "I don't know anything about anything around here, except that it's /really friggin' hot/," he calls back at a mix of Mokou and Marisa, with a side of more-informative Sanae. "But if we're expecting a brawl... I've got some 'spell cards' of my own." Theo drop-shuffles the stack of cards in his hands while Kickotron catches up, then puts them on the tray on top of the little bird-robot's head. Theo believes in taking the initiative. He does this with his opening hand, dropping three cards in rapid succession. "Plains. Tap for a White --" Theo draws on the huge amount of magic permeating this place, probably ticking off whoever owns it in the process. "-- to play a Sol Ring!" A band of dull metal materializes in mid-air, spinning rapidly. It slows, and then bursts into what looks like a wreath of sunfire, giving off light without heat. "Tap the Sol Ring for two colorless..." There he goes, yanking mana for his own purposes. Gensokyo doesn't seem to lack it, anyway. "... to pay one for a second Sol Ring, to tap for two /more/... for a Brass Squire!" A second ring of sunfire appears, identical to the first. Theo wears one on each hand, giving him a fiery countenance. They dim momentarily, and there's a flicker next to him as something appears: another myr, a short, bird-beaked robot like Kickotron, but made of brass and with big emerald orbs for 'eyes.' It hunches down next to him, behind the pillar. It looks simultaneously plucky and subservient, somehow. Then, he... stops, and waits. Card games don't really go anywhere without an opponent.
Amaterasu	And while the gathered group took their various actions, the hidden duo conversed. "Holy crap, that thing is huge! Look at it, bro!" "I see it! And now I want one!" "Where could you even keep it?" "Shut up." "Wow, we've got runners already! Ahahaha! This is great!" "Stop laughing and get to work!" "Hey, someone's calling us! Why don't we step out?" "Are you stupid?" "Aw, but she's kinda cute..." This went on and on and on... And then Marisa leveled that big gun towards the inner parts of the island. "Crap, that doesn't look good!" "Stop panicking, you loser! Get psyched, 'cause we're doing this!" "Of course we're doing this! I'm not scared!" "You sure? You look pretty scared to me." "I will end you! Anyway, let's do this! Ready?" "Ready." "Hit it!" Right then, as if to respond to Yuna, Marisa, and whoever else was calling them out, running, or whatever, from the ground, countless thick vines burst up, kicking up huge chunks of dirt and stone debris in a rain. Those myriad vines whirled around, aiming to grab onto anyone or anything they could, and restrain it. Marisa's robot, and that trained rifle was a particular target, and several vines aimed to wrap around the weapon and pull it's aimed direction downwards, away from the inner parts of the island. And then from the air, a storm surged. The wind swirled with great strength, becoming visible to the eye as a tornado formed and barreled through the area they were standing in. Wind blades formed, mixed into the gust as it traveled along. And finally, up in the air, placing themselves between the group and the rest of the island, two boys appeared. One wore blue suspenders with blonde hair, and the other wore red suspenders with green hair. They were identical in physical features, and looked to be about twelve years old. "Hey!" The blonde one started, pointing in everyone's general direction. "It's time for you losers to go home!" The green one finished, also pointing. "This area's off-limits!" The blonde went on, riffing off his twin. "Yeah! Off limits! For reasons!" The green one added, grinning at end.
Chica Mendez	Well, scattering and prepping for ambush had ended up being a good idea, huh? Not that it really would've helped some of the people here. One of those being a certain Aztlanner elf. At least she manages to snarl right before the roots start coming, "Contact!" When the first few vines go for her, Chica manages to dodge and slip to the side. One of them wraps around her ankle, earning a grimace and a heavy pistol bullet that managed to break her free. She tries to fall back and fire on the ones that keep approaching, but just ends up being strung up by ones behind her. "Nnngh--fuck!" And then she was down on the ground, utterly trapped. But not dead... "Fucking... Sound off!" she grunts out to everyone else. GOt to see who's still alive. Then the boys come in, and even on the ground the elf snorts in derision at their demands. "Real goddamn funny, kiddos. The hell're you doing up here, and what's going on?!" It may not be that intimidating from where she's at, but hey, it's something at least.
Yuna Kagurazaka	The vines erupting from the ground push Yuna to go into evasive mode, the Matrix Divider flaring into existence in her hands in case she needs to cut herself (or anyone else) free. She's more concerned with dodging than attacking, though, not wanting to get tangled up the way those vines are trying to ensnare Marisa's magical mecha. "We haven't lost anything yet!" she calls back to the two boys when they materialize. "So don't go calling us 'losers' ... and for that matter, if this whole area is off-limits, then what are you doing here? Who are you?" So far, Yuna seems to be remaining good-natured about the whole situation; from what she knows of Gensokyo, danmaku duels are as common as handshakes for greeting each other. And might serve a very similar purpose, it occurs to her. She's keeping a very respectful distance from that windstorm, though.
Fujiwara no Mokou	"Don't you try to argue! You should have fixed this days ago already!" Mokou points towards Marisa's DEUS MACHINA accusingly, evidently grumpy too. So Reimu really is slacking, huh? That's such a pain, but kind of expected. At least, the gathered team should be more than enough to handle this...? The appearance of two boys, probably Youkai of some nature judging by the sudden vines and winds, finally tips Mokou out of just being really annoyed into being downright pissed. That's because vines just crushed her feet and ankles in an extremely painful manner, and wind blades have opened multiple large gaps in her arms, having used them to shield herself. Rather than blood, it's flames that gush out of the wounds. "And you two making me eat my words! You can't just go and play against the rules when I just warned people about them! What do I look like now?!" Huff. Fire pulses out of Mokou, blasting the vines away from her. Her legs and arms bathe in the glow for a moment, before being as pristine as before the attack. Except her shirt is sleeveless now, thanks to the blades and fire. "If you need cover, just stay behind me," she corrects herself to Sarah, now that the fight terms are clearer. Then she snaps her fingers, and sends fire... pretty much everywhere, but most especially at the two boys. It's a deluge of fire bullets! "Just knock them down, we can tie them up and roast them for answers after!" She huh, you'll probably want to verify how literal she's being there, but she's probably not above that sort of mean play to get information.
Theo Morrison	Theo doesn't have to wait long. The vines burst out of the ground, and he goes from taking cover to trying to get /out/ of it. His legs get snagged and he's pelted with debris, hitting him hard enough that he's going to be feeling it tomorrow. His upraised arm covers his face just in time, and his other hand clutches the his hand of trading cards. The second the storm starts, Theo is glad he has his Abstractum with him. Kicktron gets lifted clear off the ground, the metal myr still small and relatively light. Theo grabs him by the ankle and drags him back down with gritted teeth, blades of wind cutting across his body. Kickotron's other leg comes off, getting bounced across the island and swept up in the tornado, but the one Theo is holding stays firmly attached. Theo is pretty sure he's bleeding in a couple places from that wind. From /wind/! "What was that about 'non-lethal?!'" Theo yells, coincidentally sounding off for Chica's call. Kickotron manages to get planted on the ground, hooking his other foot on the vines that have practically lashed the Planeswalker to the pillar he was hiding behind. Dodging isn't really a thing he can /do/ right now, but fortunately, he was already kind of bad at it. Theo manages to fumble another card into his hand. The ones on the tray, including his deck and the badge-like object resting next to it, are unmoved by the jostling and the wind. He slaps two more down quickly, clumsily tapping mana while he tries to keep the rest of himself from getting tangled up. "Grr -- Island! Deathrender!" A glint of metal, bright sunlight shining on cold steel and black iron, and a sword appears. The longsword's blade is split, joined for half the length of the blade by a black extension from the almost A-shaped guard. "Equip Deathrender to the Brass Squire!" Theo yells over the wind. The other myr -- presently in a mess of vines -- manages to get one hand on the hilt of the weapon. There's a flash of gleaming steel, and the myr is free of the vines. Theo is still hooked by the legs, but given his other option is outrunning a tornado, he'll deal with it. The Brass Squire lays the Deathrender across its shoulders, stepping out from behind the pillar and looking up at the two boys. The little bird-machine doesn't have any way to fly to attack them, and that sword is much too large for it to wield practically. It doesn't seem to give a crap. The Brass Squire charges ahead, rushing between lashing vines and hacking down ones that get too close. It hops forward, gaining air and bouncing off pillars and turned earth with each movement. It gets higher and higher, finally rushing upwards at the green-haired boy like a self-propelled sword-missile. In a vacuum, it would be the least-difficult thing to dodge. Fortunately, the Brass Squire isn't the only thing they have to deal with.
Sanae Kochiya	There's plenty of magic, and mana for that matter, to go around, so Theo needn't worry over any complaint from the wind priestess. Sanae, herself, is wrapped in a very focused gust of air, for that matter, which is dense enough to keep her aloft as well as be visible. Even with her alertness, all of these vines that suddenly erupt are a little bit much, "Aah!?" They momentarily ensnare her ankle, before she concentrates in a burst of magic of her own, causing that gentle but concentrated air enveloping her to turn into sharp, cutting blades of her own. This, hopefully, enables her to wrest herself free, and put a little bit more distance between herself and the ground. "Hmm. Not much of a spell card, right? More like just magic!" She's certainly experienced enough of it in the multiverse at large, where spell card rules typically don't apply. Her own wind is an insulating buffer against the sharp, cutting gale that courses through the area, though a few minor cuts might be visible on the very edges of her protective robes. From past experience, she expects some cute little girl, or a young woman, that is actually thousands of years old to emerge. Instead, the green-haired teenager gives a disbelieving blink of her eyes. "Boys?" Are they twins? Then the confusion melts into something else entirely: "Oh, you're adorable," she absolutely gushes, "With your little matching outfits! Which one of you is the first and second player?" It's about time someone other than her got hit with that. Regaining her composure somewhat, though, her smile darkens, "Speaking of things that are forbidden, though. Allowing you to play with such dangerous magic, we're going to have to teach you a lesson, right?" She takes a moment to tap her wand into her open palm a few times. She does, however, hesitate, as Yuna still seems intent on getting some answers the way a reasonable person might. She is about to note that she's breaking the unofficial protocols, but thinking back on that non-spell card opening, it's pretty clear these two don't know about it, either. Mokou fortunately takes the initiative, and Sanae has her back! With a clasp of her hands and focus, she attempts to focus the blustering, wild wind of the area to be more cooperative with her flames. The multiverse has taught her about combining power, when possible. "We'll play with them a bit, then when this is over, they'll tell us everything!" That's how it has worked since she arrived. Several talismans also slip into her hand from inside one billowing sleeve, forming and folding into a serpentine shape, before she launches them in the direction of the twins. They transform into magical serpents in mid-air, and home in. "They just don't know the rules yet, probably," she asides, helpfully, to Theo!
Sarah Parsle	"Oh yeah sure, rules. I know. Nonlethal murder lasers. Totally. But you know else suchs? DEBILITATING PAIN." Sarah yells from behind the rock shelf she's taken shelter behind. Just in time too, as everything breaks loose. While she's in a good position to not get ripped up by the wind blades, the vines and rocks are another story, forcing her to begin YOUTH ROLLING in desperation as she whips out... A vaguely saw-shaped puzzle that's all glued together. She lashes out with it, cutting one with a grating, crappy sound just before it does horribly viny things to her. "SO HOW ABOUT THOSE RULES HUH? THIS SURE LOOKS SUPER NONLETHAL TO ME." Sarah yells indignantly.
Marisa Kirisame	Mistakes were made. The sudden appearance of enormous, crushing vines isn't quite what Marisa had expected to see when she drove her giant magical robot up to kick whoever parked this floating island on top of Gensokyo off her lawn. Lord Byakhee swerves back, but the sheer number of vines coupled with the Deus Machina's comparatively much larger size makes it an easy target despite its incredible speed. Mistakes were made, yes. Marisa thinks this to herself as the two little shrimps responsible for scraping her paintjob show up nearby. Yes, dreadful mistakes. "Hey," Marisa says, her voice... distressingly dark and increasingly forboding, "You two." "You really don't know how things work around here, do you?" The Lord Byakhee's eyes burn with terrible eldritch light. Marisa's hands grip her seat, knuckles going bone white as she surges with magical power. Outside, the tremendous twister that had been barreling down through their general area suddenly... splits into two. Or rather, it's as if some external force had begun ripping into the magic animating the air. Blades of wind sweep down from the twister, but they cleave into the vines holding the Lord Byakhee in place, allowing the machine the freedom of movement to do the terrible work of ripping these two upstarts a new one. Which is about when the four octagonal orbitals swivel up at the pair of boys. "You girls've done fucked up! Coming here and NOT declaring a spell card duel is just askin' me to do terrible things!" Marisa's voice booms from the Lord Byakhee as she makes a horribly mistaken (though honestly understandable, all things considered) judgment about the gender of her assailants. It's as if someone had installed a pair of loudspeakers into the super robot, or something equally ostentatious. With an exertion of will, Marisa diverts more of her power into the octagonal panels, "Here we go! COLD INFERNO - DELUXE!" Each of those orbitals seems to rapidly increase in complexity, going from simple geometric shapes to strange interlocking patterns of vaguely octagonal arcane arrays. Where once there was a simple, cooling breeze, Marisa's projected mini-hakkeros suddenly begin emitting marrow-freezing cascades of frigid force. The effect is only amplified by the Byakhee's own power over the atmosphere, transforming the chilling blasts into horizontal tornados of wintery wrath!
Amaterasu	Yuna's question earns her a twin look of incredulity. They stared at her, and then they stared at each other questioningly. "Did she just ask that?" The blonde twin asked the green. "Looks like she did. Should we bother?" The blonde one adopted a thinking pose, hand on chin. "Ehhhhhhn....." And then there comes a ton of fire. "-WHOA HEY WHOA WOW WHOA" The two boys flail comically around and break off into evasive manuevers, swerving and weaving through the flames. "Hey! That was close, you old hag!" The green haired boy complained, pointing indignantly at Mokou. ...Ignoring their hypocrisy for now, it seemed like his hair was on fire. THe blonde one noted this and burst out laughing. "Pfft-- Bro! Hey bro! Your hair's on fire! It's on fire! Ahahahaha!" The green twin paused. "Eh? Huh?" He reached up, feeling the heat. "....IT'S ON FIRE! MY HAIR'S ON FIRE! GAH!" Cue more comical flailing as the two frantically pat out the headfire. Once that debacle was sorted out, Sanae had interjected with the player one and two comment. They whirled to look at her. "......" The blonde burst out laughing. "Hah! See that? I'm player one!" The green whirled on him. "What!? No way! I'm player one! I've got the red! See?" He gestured to his red overalls proudly, hands on his hips, and a bit of smoke rising from his hair. "Oh yeah? Then that just means that we have to switch!" And then they started wrestling in mid-air. Right there. It's like they forgot about the whole 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS' thing. Good thing Theo and Sanae were here to remind them of that fact. A SWORD slashes between the two and the green one yelps, finding a slash torn across the chest of his overalls, but no wound. "Ack! That's a sword! A sword! He just tried to slash me! That's not cool!" The blonde one also floats back quickly, considerably less panicked. "He totally just tried to slash you! You've got NO luc- BWA!" Homing snakes barrel into him at that moment, sending him hurtling through the air hilariously. "Wha wha wha wha-!" ...Were these two actually kind of weak? Marisa's dark tone catches both of their attention at that moment. "Eh? Hey that big thing's going crazy again!" "Wait a second, I think she just called us girls-" "THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The freezing twin tornadoes crash into the twin boys and they are tossed about like ragdolls, bodies whirling through the air until finally, they lose control over their flight and go crashing into the ground some distance away with a big crash and a cloud of dust and ice. When approached, those who do so, will find a crater with the two boys laying inside, swirlies in their eyes. "Euuuuuuh, these guys are too strong! What the heeeeck-" ...They really were weak.
Sanae Kochiya	These really are just kids, aren't they? Sanae can't help but stare with a mixture of amusement and confusion, as the twins are completely unprepared for what elites, both local and outsider, are able to bring out. They even have a brief period of infighting over a joke of hers. Then, they are completely overwhelmed by everything being thrown at them at once. Well, hopefully noone paid too much for this side of the island, at this rate. The bewildered look fades after a few moments, as the wind priestess hovers closer to the edge of the resulting crater. The talismans return to her sleeve, and the wand returns to her hip. "...ah, did we overdo it, maybe," she wonders? Yet, she was the one joining in the tough talk, not so long ago! The obvious question is what to do with them. And it has an obvious answer. "...well, they did leave all of these vines and roots around." Turn about is fair play.
Yuna Kagurazaka	Yuna just kinda stares at the two boys as everyone else beats them up, it seems like. "You know, they might have explained things without you all clobbering them," she comments wryly - although not so loud that her allies are all necessarily going to hear it. Ah well. With the pair of boys walloped and sprawled in that crater, Yuna flies over to cut Chica loose from the vines that grabbed her, then dismisses the Matrix Divider and flies over to where the boys 'landed' from eating that combined onslaught. "I hope you two aren't too badly hurt after all that," she says with a warm, friendly smile - and a genuine one, at that. "Let's try this again ... I'm Yuna, and from what I've heard, the weather in Gensokyo is a lot hotter than it has any right to be this time of year. Could you please tell us your names, and whatever you know that might be relevant to the problems with the weather?" She shows no signs of wanting to engage in further combat .. but, well, she IS still transformed, so if the issue gets forced she'll be able to adapt. Presumably.
Theo Morrison	Theo is just about to unleash his next latest and greatest trick when it... looks like the problem is actually kind of solved. He relaxes a little. The Brass Squire, way over there, lands and lays the Deathrender across its shoulders again. It starts to waddle back in his general direction. "Maybe you should teach them the rules now," Theo calls over to Sanae. "I know I could sure use a run-down." There's a pause. He glances down. He still can't move his legs. "And maybe a hedgetrimmer. Hey Squire, while you're summoned, c'mere!" The other myr hops towards the beleaguered Planeswalker a little faster.
Marisa Kirisame	Mistakes were made! Marisa was not the one who made them! She leans back in her Throne Of Great Power, sipping from a glass vial of what appears to be pickled mushroom essence. How she is able to drink that stuff without becoming physically and psychologically ill is one of the great mysteries of gensokyo. The girl at her side reflexively cringes as the witch goes through the entire bottle. "Haah," Marisa sighs as she sets the bottle aside, "Now that's how we get things done." The Lord Byakhee casts a great shadow across the floating island as it flies in towards the crater those two troublemakers made. It looms there, casting a dread and intimidating shade over their presently unreasonably cold world. "Hey, you two," Marisa intones, the blue disks pivoting to aim precariously in their general direction again, though they don't actually fire. They just sort of... Hold position. Dangerous, dangerous position. "You girls've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do. So why don't the both of you tell us where to lodge our complaints about the unseasonably warm weather, and we'll let you go with a warning this time. Once, you know, we take care of that, that is." MARISA KIRISAME: UNABLE TO DISTINGUISH TROUBLEMAKING, MAGICAL TWELVE YEAR OLD BOYS FROM TROUBLEMAKING, MAGICAL TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRLS. It's probably a sign you've lived in Gensokyo too long.
Fujiwara no Mokou	From afar it must be pretty difficult to keep track of all the different effects and shots flying about. Fire, ice, snakes, vines, the wind and whatever else, notably the fact Theo is apparently summoning things. It's colorful for sure, and Marisa hasn't even fired a rainbow yet! Being called a old hag is new. Generally she'd be the one saying that, to Kaguya most likely. She can't argue with the fact she's old, really, so she's not sure how to reply. Well, besides: "SHUT UP!" which is pretty all-purpose. Following the deluge of attacks, Mokou calms down a tag, glancing back towards Sarah. She waves her hand and more or less whips leftover vines with a streak of fire, to help the teen out. "Sorry. People usually know the rules. It's not often we get outsiders, and usually even outsiders know the rules. It's a pretty bad idea to start a mess in Gensokyo if you're going to ignore them, you're just going to piss a couple dozen powerful people up. It's not like you need to break the rules for anything, if you wanted to conquer Gensokyo all you'd have to do is beat whoever came to stop you in a duel and it'd legally be yours." As long as you had the power to keep it, anyway! Mokou shrugs, and heads over to the fallen boys, to stand at the edge of the small crater, hands returning to her pockets. "Yeah, what the witch said. Let's get the plot dump already so we can kill this heat, and then we'll go crash at the miko's shrine for sake." She glances towards Marisa and Sanae. "That's the procedure, right?"
Chica Mendez	With her face stuck in the dirt and unable to move, Chica isn't really able to see any of the amazing action that's going on around her. That being said, she really doesn't miss a single bit of it. Because what she's imagining in her head is utter and horrific magical chaos on a scale she's not seen. For all intents and purposes, that's exactly what's happening! Tornadoes rage and throw debris at her, bringing up painful bruises, fire, the intense glacial chill of Marisa's magic. All of it wash over or near the prone elf who has to helplessly lay there and pray it doesn't hit her. Which, thankfully it doesn't! She gets a nice hearty snicker out of hearing those two brats getting taken to task, though. Oh, but she's not done with 'em. When she's cut free the Aztlanner pushes herself to her feet quickly. She has to spot out a couple bits of dirt before she can finally grunt a thanks to her rescuer. Her hair was a mess, her formal outfit was trashed again...! Oh, it was time to get to business. As everyone goes to where the kids landed, Chica nearly strolls in ready to dispense some Aztlan mother justice on their heads. Yuna's attempt to try to charm them gets a low growl. Eventually, she leans over close to the children. There's no sympathy here. And she's still carrying her gun. "You'd better listen. I don't mind frying your asses if you think you can pull some shit like this again."
Marisa Kirisame	Marisa shrugs helplessly in Mokou's general direction. Somehow, despite not actually having real shoulders, the Lord Byakhee seems to shrug too. "Yeah, pretty much. Birds fly, fish swim, I show up, beat up the bad guys, and then get drunk at Reimu's. It's just how things go." "You all're invited too, of course," she says happily, despite having no authority to extend any invitation of the sort. "It'll be fun!"
Sarah Parsle	Sarah came here to laugh at losers who used patterned attack systems because the little girl is hilariously good at pattern identification and exploitation. She got standard murder magic. The firepower levied at them sends Sarah flying, yelling as she gets slammed into the ground nearby and pelted with rocks. "THIS IS NOT MY IDEA OF A GOOD TIME." She yells. But then Marisa solves the issue with a bit of the good old ultraviolence, and she digs herself out of the Sarah-shaped crater. "Okay. so. It's cool." she says to Fujiwara, turning to cut things with her JIGSAW. She throws the vines over her shoulder as she approaches the similarly cratered kids. She doesn't waste time. She ties them up with those vines good and tight, and looks back to the others. "You guys better talk or I'm gonna see if I can play Jenga with your teeth." She says, simply.
Amaterasu	Despite the beating, they actually look fine, barring cuts, burns, and ice patches on their clothes. No blood at all. Just dirt. Guess they had something going for them, beyond their lack of real fighting strength. ...But that doesn't help right now, does it? "Uggggh..." The two of them sit up in unison, grumbling and groaning. Sanae's observation about the vines and roots gets a response. "Huh? Oh, that's nothing! We can fix that in-Wha hey!" Sarah comes in and ties them up. In time, they're back to back, wriggling and tied up with their own vines. "Hey! This isn't cool! This isn't cool at all!" The blonde one cries. "Actually...what's jenga?" The green one followed, not understanding the threat. Oh well, it looked like people wanted answers. What with Yuna, Marisa, Mokou, and Sarah hounding them. Yuna is actually reasonable, so they're not quite that rude to her. ...Comparatively. "Yuna!" Yuna! Nice to meetcha!" They grinned in unison. And then they pouted in unison. "......" Being back to back, they couldn't look at each other, but they seemed to understand each other nonetheless. After a moment of contemplation, but the blonde spoke up. "I'm Haruyama no Kasumiotoko!" And then the green haired one followed. "I'm Akiyama Shitabiotoko" And then together. "And we're...THE MASTER'S OF THE UNIVER- wait, no. Wrong bit. Sorry." They really weren't taking this seriously. Kids. But on the subject of it being hot, they just shrugged. "I dunno!" Akiyama stated. Haruyama followed. "Big sis over at the palace came over one day and said that something BIG was gonna happen! And she told us to drive off any intruders!" Akiyama took over. "But we dunno why it's all hot and stuff. We just stopped you 'cause big sis said so!" "Yep!" "Yeah!" These two were so simple. Marisa gets pair of stuck out tongues for her girl comment. Looks like she was locked out of diplomacy. WAKE UP WITCH. Mokou gets much the same. "Bleeeeh! Plot dump? What's that? Do you gotta take a dump in a plot? Ahahahahaha!" Morons. And then there's Chica. "Ooooh! She's gonna fry our asses!" "...It probably won't taste good. I'd rather have fried chicken." "Yeah! Fried chicken!" "Yeah!" ...Seriously?
Chica Mendez	Well, they're strung up. And giving as best an explaination as they might. Kids. This 'big sister' might by the reason why there was so much magic here. DIdn't really explain the heat well. So, in the end they gave up everything that they needed. Mostly. With the explainations going on over the radio, Chica shrugs slightly. "So you two were just put out here to be guard dogs. Figures. Well, you'll be apparently learning some new stuff eventually, but let's get something straightened out right now." The gun is put away, and she smiles down at the two... And then reaches behind them to swat them both over the head. Not really hard, but she's trying to make it smart. "First rule: respect your elders, brats." And then she's merrily grabbing up some of the loose vines to make a pullstring, and starts trying to drag the two along. "So, where are we taking these two for interrogation?"
Theo Morrison	Kickotron, who has divested himself of the tray table of cards, hops past the group of interrogators one-legged. He's apparently seeking his other one. He doesn't even look at the two kids, but they might get a look at him. Hop. Hop. Hop. "Who's your 'big sis' that's telling you to do stuff?" Theo calls. The Brass Squire starts to carefully cut him free... and then promptly vanishes, along with the Sol Rings he's wearing. The 'game' is over, so his pieces of it don't stick around. This means he's still kind of... stuck. Theo sighs. "Can I get a little help over here?"
Fujiwara no Mokou	Besides the old naming scheme for the one boy, it doesn't seem these two have anything unusual about them. Which is unfortunate, since that means they're probably being truthful in their lack of information. Not that it means they might not know SOME stuff. Mokou decides to just cut to the chase, rather than put up with the semi-insulting back and forth, and assorted childish antics. And in the same stroke, answer Chica's question. "We don't need to go anywhere." A snap of her finger, and a cage of fire appears around the two boys! Mokou just stares them down. "So, everytime you don't answer a question, I'm going to shrink the cage down. You could plow through it if you want but personally I'd just talk. How about we start with what this place is called and how long you've been around?" Plus whatever other questions people want to pitch in. Well, technically Theo beat her to one, but that's alright, team effort!
Sarah Parsle	Sarah just lets the others handle interrogation. She does, however, pull out her JENGA STACK. "This is Jenga." She pulls one of the blocks out carefully, letting them watch her do it. She holds up the balsawood block in her fingers, and then she flicks it at the one who asked what Jenga was. >pok< She then puts the STACK away back into her STRIFE SPECIBUS, and heads over towards where Theo is stuck. She gets out the JIGSAW and starts using it to try to free Theo. She takes up the slack of the missing Squire, working around the jammed Planeswalker. "This is kind of silly." She comments offhand. "Does this happen often?"
Yuna Kagurazaka	See? Information. Now if only conversation was given a chance to work BEFORE people started throwing attacks ... although to be fair, the brothers did fire the first shots without giving anyone else much of a chance to talk - or bothering to answer those initial inquiries. Yuna smiles (albeit somewhat wryly), nodding at Akiyama and Haruyama. "So what's your big sister's name, and where's this castle she wanted people to stay away from?" she asks, although she's gesturing at Chica to (please) not drag them anywhere yet. "I mean, you've already told us we shouldn't go there, and it'd be awful if we went in the wrong direction and headed straight for the place you're supposed to keep us away from. If you've got any idea what 'big thing' she's planning, that might be helpful too, so we can get other people to stay away." She SOUNDS like she's being totally honest and serious in her suggestions and further questions, too ... but she might be trying to put one over on the brothers.
Marisa Kirisame	Locked out of diplomacy!? Oh no, what ever shall Marisa do!? Well, clearly not what Mokou is doing. Despite her tremendous magical power, she doesn't actually have that kind of fine control. But what she can do is something potentially just as intimidating. In the form of aiming the enormous barrel of that terrible gun right at the crater and the flaming cage within it. "Y'all should probably do as she says," Marisa suggests all the while proving just how terrible and barbaric the underside of Gensokyo can truly be. HOW MONSTROUS!! "'Cause if you take too long, I'll have enough time to charge this here gun, and you don't wanna see that happen."
Amaterasu	Chica swats them. "Ow!" "Ow!" Both Haru and Aki grumble together. It wasn't going to stick. Stubborn kids were stubborn kids. Even if they were magical wind and earth rending kids. "Huh? Take us? Why would you take us? That's dumb!" Haru exclaimed, frowning at the prospect. Aki nodded rapidly in agreement. "Super dumb!" POKK they get Jenga'd "Hey!" "Come back here and do that again! I dare you!" "Jenga sucks!" And then Kickotron hops by. "....." "......Hah! Look at it! It's got one leg!" "Hop little guy! Hop for geat justice!" Poor Kickotron. The two look at Theo next. "Who's our big sis?" Aki repeated the question, blinking. After a moment of silence, Haru took over. "Bleeeeh! Why should we tell you tha-WHA FIRE!" And there it went. A cage of fire flared up around the two boys and they panicked. "That's not funny, old hag!" "Yeah! Not funny at al-WHOA HEY!" And then Marisa upped the ante by aiming GIANT ROBOT GUN at them. "OKAY OKAY FINE FINE!" Haru sighed and started off. "Big Sis's name is Wa-ghrk!" There was a faint glow around the boy's throat, and something actually muted him. It looked like he was choking on water. "Huh? ...Let me try that again. Wa-glbrf!" Again. The same glow, and then a drowned garble. "...I...I can't say her name!" Aki frowned and interjected. "Maybe she did something? Big sis is pretty good at magic after all!" And it looks like that question was out. Aki took over. "Uh...about where we are..." He tilted his head slightly. "It's called...Takamagahara! Right?" Haru nodded. "Yeah, that's right! Takamagahara!" Haru fielded the next question. "And uh...I don't remember how long we've been around! It's been forever! But we just recently reincarnated, so now we're kids again! Neat, huh?" Well that was an interesting tidbit. Yuna's question about big sis is ignored, because of previous example. Instead, Aki fields the question about the castle. "No way! We can't tell you where it is! We'd get strung up!" "Totally strung up!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" ...But then again, where they are now, there's only sky beyond. They're at one end of this island. Beyond the boys, there's much more island to go. It looks like none of the fairies or lesser youkai made it past here previously. "Can we go now?"
Theo Morrison	Kickotron doesn't seem to notice or mind the teasing. It's hard to tell. The myr sits down, sticking its leg back where it was ripped off. Little tools unfold out from one of its hands. There are sparks as it gets to work fixing itself up, quickly and efficiently. Kickotron's baseball cap it kind of askew, though. The vines are... viney. "Thanks," Theo mutters. He glances at Sarah, and then towards the fire cage and the gods(?) they're questioning. "Do you mean big flashy fights ending with interrogating superpowered kids who aren't much help, or me getting stuck to things while my 'trusty minion' finds his own dropped off limbs," Theo asks.
Sarah Parsle	"The second." Sarah says, stashing her stuff when everything seems in order. Dourly, she sips from her sippy straw witn an obnoxious loudness, as if to voice her displeasure about the situation in the most juvenile way possible.
Amaterasu	"STOP SIPPING LIKE THAT!" The two boys yell over at Sarah after enduring the sound for several seconds.
Theo Morrison	"Usually I've got a wall of expendible minions or inexplicable terrain between me and danger, so, no, this is pretty new." Theo gets his feet under him and brushes himself off. "Thanks." He glances at the boys, and then back at Sarah, nodding a little approvingly. Keep doing that, he silently communicates.
Fujiwara no Mokou	"Who're you calling old if you guys have been here forever?" Mokou frowns. Predictably the cage shrinks a little bit, although it's not anywhere near as precise as people should want a fire cage to be. But for the rest, she listens, and then more or less gets it. "So, the land of the gods... it's been a really long time since I've brushed up on my Shinto lore. I was pretty big on it when I was a kid though. So you're saying Inari, Amaterasu, Susanoo and the whole bunch besides are here somewhere? Or is it just a name? I mean... Youkai Mountain isn't really home to more Youkai than anywhere else, so sometimes a name really is just a name." Or at least, as far as she knew. So gods! Or at least, a land associated with them. Now what? Mokou glances towards Marisa, shrugging. "I guess we'll have to find someone with more information. There's only so much island for them to hide in, we can probably make do without a map." A glance to the kids. "Anyone else want to ask the brats anything before we settle on letting them go or take them to wherever?"
Chica Mendez	So they were supposed to be in the land of the gods, huh? Japanese lore had never been Chica's speciality. She'd had... other training. At least the two little bastards were being helpful now. Glancing over at Sarah, Chica smirks and curses herself for not bringing her own can of soybeer so she could do the same. Missed opportunities. The interrogation seems to be coming down, because now they need to figure out what to do now. THe elf shrugs when asked if she has any further questions. "Not me. But these two need to be dealt with. Let's lock 'em up somewhere boring for awhile, separate." If they are assaulting deities, Chica gthinks there might be a profit here. "I don't mind sticking around if it's worth my time. So hey, if we find some cool shit, let me get a cut."
Marisa Kirisame	Nothing can get lips moving quite like pointing a gun with a barrel approximately as large as the person you want to get to talk at theri everything. Is this what is known as GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY!? "Takamagawhat now?" Marisa murmurs, picking at one ear. "I think I've heard Reimu chatterin' about something like that before. Or Sanae. Uhh. Well!" The gun... moves away, because they're actually being kind of useful, even when they're being useless. "I ain't about to leave the two of you up here where you can cause a ruckus. I vote we take 'em back and let someone watch 'em for us. Like... Maybe the vampire. Or Reimu."
Marisa Kirisame	"Or. OR!" Marisa looks to Mokou, the WHOLE ROBOT turns to look down at her, "Hey, is Keine okay with babysittin'?"
Fujiwara no Mokou	"She's a teacher, I think it's in her job description?" Honestly, Mokou hasn't really dropped by the school very often. Mostly when forced there for private lessons because Keine can be very difficult around full moons. "She HAS been complaining the school's been losing popularity though, so she probably wouldn't mind another two kids."
Marisa Kirisame	"I think that's 'cause somethin' about kids being out in this heat is somehow bad for them?" Marisa wouldn't know. She kind of had a weird childhood. "Anyway, a couple more girls for the class won't probably that big a deal."
Sarah Parsle	Sarah Parsle doesn't stop. In fact, she does it /louder/. Sarah is a vindictive little brat sometimes. And she is only barely older than these kids by appearance, even if her clothing indicates she's supposed to be more mature. She's not.
Amaterasu	Mokou gets a nod from Haru. "Yep! Though Inari's still sleeping. And Susanoo left this place FOREVER ago!" Aki gives her a cheeky smile. "That's 'cause we just reincarnated and you're probably five million years old!" "Yeah! Ten million years old!" "I said five, moron!" "Details!" And then the cage shrinks. "Gah! Hot!" Aki cries, scrambling with nowhere to actually scramble to. "Cut that out!" Chica's comment caused them to pale. "Wha? Hey! We answered your questions! You can't just lock us up! That's not fair!" Haru whined, pouting childishly and everything. "Yeah! We didn't do nothing!" Actually, they did a whole lot. And then Marisa makes it worse with suggestions as to where to take them. "Wha? Vampire? Raymoo? Is that like some kinda laser cow?" Aki asked, frowning in confusion. Aki burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Laser cow! Laser cow! Does whatever a laser does!" Then school is mentioned. "Huh? School? What's school?" Haru questioned, blinking a few times. Aki cut in then and glared at Marisa...'s robot. "WE'RE NOT GIRLS! GET YOUR EYES CHECKED, YOU BIG HUNK OF METAL!" ...But they did look kind of girly. No! No excuse! And allllll this time, the sound of that infernal sipping rang in the background. Finally, the two glared over at Sarah. "AHHHHHHHHH! SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!" "STOP HER! THAT'S ULTRA ANNOYING!" This was devolving into stupidity. Maybe it was time to haul them away. It didn't look like anyone was going to be swooping to their rescue.
Fujiwara no Mokou	"You're overshooting by a lot! I'm not even one percent of that!" Mokou protests, before begrudgingly dismissing the cage. Which doesn't exactly dismiss it so much as the fire shoots everywhere. Hopefully nowhere it shouldn't. If things here survive the scalding sun they can survive a brief forest fire, anyway. "How can you tell at just a glance anyway? I swear I try not to shout it out but everyone just locks onto me like I'm special. Kind of gets annoying," she says, but then dismissively waves the matter away. "School is a place kids go to learn stuff. Maybe you'll learn some manners there. Sounds like you could use a course on the rules around Gensokyo to start with."
Amaterasu	"You talk like an old hag! That's why!" "Yep! Like an old hag!" "Old hag! Old hag!" "Ahahahahahaha!" Maybe they needed to gagged too. "Oooh! School sounds so....so boring." Haru claimed after a brief moment of almost sounding interested. But then Aki cut in. "Rules? Gensokyo? So THAT'S what this place is called..." "Gensokyo!" "Gensokyo!" And now they were taking turns saying the name obnoxiously.
Yuna Kagurazaka	... Apparently, even gods can be immature. But then, Yuna thinks, she should probably have read enough mythology to be aware of that. So while the 'brothers' are busy annoying the locals, Yuna just quietly takes to the air and heads off ... whether further into the 'island' to explore, or back to where the group first set foot here, it's possible she doesn't care a whole lot right now.