Scene #6129: What Happened?

Owner	Pose
Stella	Invitations had gone out - someone clearly pining for attention (and funding) from the Concord, a certain King Thomore IV, claimed his kingdom, Vadora, had mastered the craft of infusing things, vague, with life to create fully able, sapient, decision-able supersoldiers. It was either going to be a great boon, or a great disappointment. Or both! It could be both. In every other way, Vadora was not an exceptional place to travel to. It was your typical kingdom stuck in an expansion war with several neighbors, which had, credit to it, somehow made major headway in the last month or so. Reports spoke of crystaline weaponry and an especially sturdy knight winning their battles for them, which might confirm the king's claims to the Concord. --- A short while before the agreed upon meeting time, bursts of magical energy scream across various trackers and radars - not just the Concord's, but most folks who care to monitor this kind of activity for anomalies to investigate. And wouldn't you know it, the source is Vadora. The amount of energy, though, it's... well, unless their idea of a demonstration is "creating millions of supersoldiers at once", it's probably Too Much. It is then probably vexing to at least one person that arriving through the closest Warp Gate reveals... well, nothing. The kingdom of Vadora has been razed flat, with a massive crater where the castle may or may not have been. Rubble and foundations would indicate so, at any rate. There are no bodies - no witnesses - and very little left to draw conclusions from, at least from the Warp Gate. Whatever went off, assuming something did, did a very good job turning the surrounding several miles into plains and a crater, with only the occasional half-house or broken wall to testify there was ever anything there to begin with.
Theurgus	Theurgus, and her protege/younger sister Arcana were all geared up to see some new magicks to add to the growing knowledge base of their home. But then things went BOOM. Diamond Soul and Diamond Sister appear through the closest Warpgate, flying on their Processor wings. Diamond Soul has a large silvery 'spike' in one hand, and anyone with a sense for magic would feel a LOT of power being routed through it into the two flying women. They land near one of the half-flattened houses. "We are on site... it is a desolation zone." says Theurgus, narrowing her mismatched eyes across the devastation.
Sakata Kintoki	A golden motorbike hums steadily as it speeds along, its rider leaning back with a broad grin and shades obscuring his eyes as the vehicle hurtles out of the Warp Gate. It doesn't stop for anything, just driving along while the driver glances towards the giant crater, no doubt drawn by the strange magical energy lingering in the area. It's not horror nor fear that hit the rider next, though. Instead, he looks excited. It had been a good while since Kintoki's last brawl, and something that could turn whatever was here into what is now here... Surely that would be something that could give hima fun fight! "Come on, Golden Bear... Time to ride or die!" The golden motorbike's engine roars louder as Kintoki pushes the vehicle harder, speeding up to... .... Start circling around the Diamond siblings. "Hey! Did you two cause all this?" He's grinning even wider as he cracks his knuckles, somehow managing to keep the vehicle from tipping over even while doing donuts in the dirt with only his knees to steer.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons is just packing up some stuff for the visit to Vadora -- he's got his own interest in this project, one which sounds /fascinatingly/ similar to Project Mystic and his own nature -- when his clairvoyance picks something up. He tilts his head, placing two fingers on the temple and twisting them as if tuning into a radio station, before his whole body flinches and he stumbles a little as if a flashbang had just gone off in his room. "Guh! What the heck?!" He cries out, eyes wide and sunglasses jostled to one side. He straightens them out and is out the door of his lab in a flash. He's surging out of the Warpgate on a high-speed rush of levitation energy when he arrives, skidding fancy Men In Black dress shoes over razed earth. "Woah. WOW. You're not kidding, Theurgus, it's like a bomb went off. You don't feel cancerous right? This isn't radioactive? I gotta see what was going on. Hang on, I'm gonna look for survivors and causes... Wha-- Hey!" Parsons makes placating gestures towards Sakata. "No no no! We got invited here because the King wanted to show us something! I think something bad happened when they tried, we need to figure it out... Just give me a second to try something!" He plants two fingers on each temple and twitches slightly, releasing a pulse of Clairvoyance. The hope is to reveal any psychic energy left in the area by the event. Maybe vengeful rage delivered through a weapon of mass destruction? Fear and regret that would be carried by the effects of an accidental runaway reaction? An absence of psychic residue from some mentally-focused incident? Perhaps even strong memories, or the emotional beacon of a lone survivor? And of course, any fancy psychic visual signs of such a thing are left behind by the pulse of light for all observers to see!
Captain Flint	If the Concord can well and truly give Nassau independence and relative autonomy, their price is a fair ask indeed. As he'd said on the radio prior, there's nothing Captain Flint wouldn't sacrifice to see that made a reality. Or to force England into the position of accepting /his/ forgiveness, not the other way around. So... helping with purely Concord matters is something he feels he should get used to sooner rather than later. If they're successful, he'll probably be doing it for the rest of his life anyway, as Seifer said. "What's got the magical types on edge?" asks John Silver of the captain as the two of them step through the warpgate. They're accompanied by a small complement of Walrus crew, dressed in 18th century attire to a man. The welcome party bears an anachronistic hodgepodge of arms--sabers and flintlocks alongside stolen assault rifles and pistols. "I don't know," says Flint. "That?" He gestures with a ringed hand to the place that was once Vadora. The captain nods in agreement with Theurgus, then issues an order to his men. "Spread out, groups of two. Comb the rubble for any hint of what happened here, starting with the crater." The men nod. Some of them are clearly new, and uncertain. Silver makes sure that those men are paired with more experienced partners before they depart. In pairs, the Walrus crew heads towards the crater, weapons drawn. That just leaves Flint and his one-legged quartermaster. "'Something bad' is an understatement," replies Flint to Parsons. "Perhaps it wasn't a bomb--perhaps these would-be super soldiers weren't as 'decisionable' as the king would have liked." While the Walrus men head towards the crater to search for the cause of the blast, Flint and Silver circle the parameter, working to locate survivors as Flamel suggested.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer Almasy had been expecting something, you know, regular. A nice, quiet, uneventful thing where some nowhere king decides to show off how useful and valuable he is to the concord. As a Hand of the Concord, Seifer would be an official representative, empowered to make bargains and deals on behalf of the Concord and its people. That means that Seifer's presence might be the axis on which diplomatic meetings turn in the future. God help everyone. But as such, Seifer had basically dressed...to show off. And not just show off a little bit. He's not just showing off his status as a Hand of the Concord, but his status as King of the Moon. His status as the Fox Knight. That means more than just a little bit of dressing-up. That's a first impression that needs to be /incredible/. To that end, he went to town on it. Caster picked out some clothes, which Seifer promptly mixed with his own ideas about what was appropriate and flashy, which Caster probably rejected, which...just sort of went on like that for a while. Seifer even enjoyed it. Seifer comes out of the portal. He is dressed to the nines. Maybe the tens. Maybe the elevens. A regal, royal blue haori hangs off his shoulders like a cape. It's tucked under two silver pauldrons, entirely for shoulder armor. On his chest is a dress uniform, white with dark red highlights. Around his neck, bridging the haori, is a chain with three triangles in the shape of a fox face. His pants are white with red stripes down the side, ending with tabi and metal boots. On one hand is a silvery gauntlet. On the other are the Command Spells for Caster, wrapped around his pointer and ring fingers like a wedding ring as they twine up to his wrist. Hyperion, his long, slender gunblade, rests on his shoulder in its standard carrying position. He looks like a cross between a Japanese nobleman, a modern-day soldier, and a medieval knight, and it's clear he actually took his time and coordinated this for that effect. And he is really disappointed when he sees the broken landscape. Seifer is a little behind Parsons and Theurgus and Kintoki. As Parsons starts looking around, Seifer taps his gunblade against his back. Kintoki's question gets him to shrug his shoulder slightly in a challenging manner. "We're Concord. You wanna pick a fight with us, you feel free, but we got invitations, so I suggest if you wanna dance, you pick a better date than this." Seifer gestures at Flamel. "Yeah, see what you can find out with your thing." He tilts his head at Theurgus. "If you can do anything like that, you should probably look too. I'm blind as shit when it comes to this stuff, so I'm relyin' on you guys." He seems more reliable. It must be the outfit. Flint's men disperse. Seifer takes the moment to observe them in action. He needs to know what he's gonna be working with, after all. "Shit," Seifer rubs his eyebrows, "Why is it I ain't ever gettin' invited to places that don't have somethin' wrong with 'em?"
Stella	There's no radiation, although there's a sickening amount of magic in the air. It probably feels great to someone like Kintoki, and mildly beneficial to someone like Seifer, who could probably Draw from the air itself. Flamel begins projecting the land's story. Vadora appears in shades of multicolored light - the castle stands where the crater sits, with a vast fortified city around it going further even than the devastation. It was beautiful, if one considers your average fortress city beautiful at any rate. Four different armies are marching in - peacefully. They form neat lines, bearing the flags of four nearby kingdoms, like envoys or diplomatic missions accompanied by several lines of footsoldiers for good measures. Each sends one envoy into the castle. A lone young woman is waiting for them before the gates - there's an odd crystaline sheen to her skin and clothes, even through the projection. The four envoys all agree to follow her inside. To see more, you'll have to follow too. Or, err. Well, walk inside the crater, because there's no castle to "follow into" anymore. Unfortunately, as far as finding survivors goes... there's none. There's not a sign of life within miles, except for birds flocking overhead just now from other parts. It's probably not the birds' fault, though. At best, the clues Flint and his men can find are largely going to confirm that there isn't much less. Even digging where houses had clearly been reveals very little survived the cataclysm, but the inside of the crater makes it fairly obvious that was the epicenter. In all cases, it does seem like it's the place to converge, for the sake of Flamel's projection.
Nie Li	Nie Li was interested in this 'creating living supersoldiers', although with his knowledge of occult matters he had a sinking suspicion that there was some dark secrets involved. But it doesn't matter. because during the trip, he feels a sickening wave of horrible, intense energy strike him. Something worse than he's EVER felt before, short of the atrocities committed by the Sage of Emperor. The sensation instantly turns his blood ice-cold and nearly causes him to trip. His breathing goes completely awry... which is a problem, because he's approaching on foot. He arrives via the Warp Gate, dashing at great speeds (which would be greater if he was fully grown and had longer legs!), and can only see collapsed, smoldering ruins and rubble. This just causes his gut to sink further and legs to carry him along even faster until he comes to a screeching halt at the edge of one of the biggest craters, gazing down into it. "What--" His voice cracks dryly in a mixture of horror and THIS JUST DOES NOT COMPUTE. "What happened?"
Sakata Kintoki	As more people come out of the Warp Gate, Kintoki's already looking mildly disappointed by the time anyone actually answers him. Flamel gets a long squint behind those shades. "... Really? Damn. If it's none of you, then who are you to get invited by the... Who's the King? Is he in there?" Kintoki jerks a thumb back towards the crater as the motorbike finally rolls to a stop, setting his feet down on the ground while remaining seated. He watches that... Whatever Flamel's doing for a few seconds before turning to Seifer, smirking again as he identifies himself and the others as Concord. "Is that a challenge? Heh... Name's Sakata Kintoki. I'd take ya up on that, but..." Another glance towards the crater. "Whoever did all this? I think I'd rather dance with them if they're still around!" It's not likely he intended it as a snub, but he's probably not thinking too much about how it might seem. He's honest about it, at least. Why settle for fighting a bunch of random people when someone like Craters McMagichole is somewhere out there waiting for him? Plus, there's some freaky history projection going on. With few other clues to work with, he starts driving in to follow the strange crystal lady while soaking in all that sweet, sweet magical ambience. He looks to be getting more excited by the second!
Theurgus	Well, it seems that the party started without them. Perchance luck, perchance fate. The Gates of Time are always difficult to read. For now, the pair spot Flamel's projections, and turn to head over that way, following the projected envoys into the ghostly castle in the wake of the girl, their floating movement allowing them to skim past any rubble and debris to take a direct path. "Keep your eyes open. I may need you to return to Locus and send Grimoire in your stead." says Theurgus to her protege who merely nods in return, keeping her pinwheel-like eyes looking around at the projections, taking in everything she can.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer rubs his eyebrows again and glances at Nie Li. "Yeah, we're workin' on that." Kintoki rolls off. Seifer rolls his shoulder. "Yeah, you better fuckin' run," he mutters as he walks forward into the stuff. For a brief instant, the party can see the grey specter of Gilgamesh appear behind Seifer, holding a traditional drinking bowl in one hand and pouring from a sake jug in the other. Some blue light gathers in his lower hands. Then he vanishes. "Huh." Seifer shrugs. "Fuck it." And he heads into the crater, skidding down the row to make sure he looks Properly Impressive for his entrance, haori flapping around his arms like a bancho jacket. Or a cape. Either way.
Captain Flint	Flint and Silver find nothing, scouring the outside. From what the crew relays back to them, the crater is at least apparently the epicenter of this. Flamel's projection makes it seem as if that's where the answers are going to be. So, Flint gives an order to converge over the Walrus sub-channel, then heads with Silver to the crater proper. When the two of them arrive, they are welcomed by a series of gruff affirmations from the crew as Seifer slides on down past them. Between the captain, his quartermaster and his crew, there is a general air of unease. They are nowhere near as eager as Kintoki is to meet Mr. McMagichole, likely because none of them want to be his next victim if they can help it. Flint spends a moment conferring with Parsons over the radio, then nods. The projection isn't solid, but making it so would greatly assist efforts to see what happened, for those without flight intending to follow the procession. "Gather up what you can from the wreckage and make a path there," he says, pointing to the interior of the castle projection. "Handsomely." That last word sets the crew to splitting up, hustling out of the crater to grab whatever stones, rubble, or planks the blast left untouched. Bringing it back in staggered patrols, the Walrus crew packs dirt in on either side with makeshift tools, bolstering the rubble-paved walkway. It naturally gets harder the further they go in, but with Silver coordinating them, the work is at least evenly paced. By the time they're done, anyone intending to follow the procession in at eye-level should be able to do so, using the walkway. Flint, naturally, does so, a suspicious frown on his face as he eyes the spot where the lone woman stood moments ago.
Flamel Parsons	It's like going back in time. Parsons follows along with the lines of memories. It's like a recording of sorts, albeit one that will surely fade over the ages. He gives a few grateful nods to Sakata. "Hi there! Flamel Parsons. We're still finding out what's going on, but I think there'll definitely be something good there!" He smiles brightly and broadly, at least a little too much for someone who's standing in a razed wasteland. "Come on!" He calls to Nie Li, inviting him to follow too. "We're about to see what happened!" Parsons keeps things slow in the "playback" of this memory, as Flint has promised to get a walkway ready to follow along with what happened. He decides to zero in on the envoys, lacking anything else to focus on at the moment. Let's see where they went! At the very least, if anyone was informed of disaster before it struck, it'll be those guys. So he follows along the walkway construction as it goes, drifting with levitation in order to make sure he doesn't strain the construction, and seeing if he can tune in on sound that will tell them more about what happened.
Nie Li	Nie Li's not yet bold enough to go scouting INTO the crater. He would have prefered to keep a distance and observe longer... but Seifer just plunges on inwards, and others are showing the same determination. Almost reckless, in his view. To go with them in case anything happens, or continue his own investigation, his way? The boy grunts quietly to himself. He'd just sat down in quarter lotus style and was about to begin Cultivating... but he gets back up and takes a flying leap down to Flamel! And lands with odd grace on some of the stabler rubble piles. "Nie Li. Martial artist. How, exactly, are you doing that...?" He glances at the strange superimposed imagery of the psychometric projection.
Stella	History continues to unfold. The four diplomatic envoys follow the young woman through heavily guarded halls, until they reach the throne room. King Thomore IV is a tall and bulky man, clearly a warrior at heart just slightly past his prime but not so used to the throne he lost his muscles yet. The young woman kneels, the king rises, and the four envoys are in various states of "not wanting to kneel" "dismissive" and "generally hostile". There's enough of that to go around. It's obvious the soldiers around the room don't like their presence either, and the king seems entirely too smug and gruff to tolerate diplomats in his household. He motions to the side, and countless wizards pour into the massive throne room from side areas, forming a circle around the empty middle. This isn't a battle. The diplomats are on edge regardless. Various materials are placed in the center. Gems, minerals, fancy ores and glowing metals of various areas of the Multiverse. The wizards begin chanting, and magic starts gathering, as the collection of metals begins assembling itself into a humanoid shape. Like the young woman, even as its metallic tones shift into human skin colors, it retains this metallic, crystaline sheen, until a young man in armor has been formed from the metals. The diplomats argue amongst themselves in alarm. The king speaks. "Know that this was but a taste! Wizards across all of Vadora are repeating this process as we speak." Why would he tell us this, the diplomats all think. The young woman's arms crystalize, forming blades in her hands. She lunges for the diplomats and the king sits back down. It's just that... something goes awry in the next few seconds. The assembled man of metal starts glowing uncontrollably, and one of the diplomats, even as he's skewered, falls laughing to the floor. The light makes it impossible to see which kingdom the four envoys represent anymore. The projection abruptly ends. With its colors no longer obscuring view, a crystal formation near the center of the crater is now much more obvious, its point sticking out of the ground. It's rainbowy.
Flamel Parsons	"Oh, this? Clairvoyance! Psychometry subschool specifically. I'm visualizing the residual psychic energies here." Parsons says, still "tuning" the "signal" that his brain is picking up by twisting his fingers on his temples. "See, whatever happened here was psychically impactful. You know, because so many people are dead! Which means it left behind all the emotions and investment people had in it. And that stuff isn't metaphorical! Whatever went on here had a /lot/ of mental investment, that's for sure..." He watches more and more of the strange event. "This is weird, though. Near the end it gets... Scrambled. Confused. I'm not sure anyone here knew what was going on, so I'm not sure /we/ can know what was going on. Or maybe whatever happened was impactful on a tremendously psychic level. Or..." He shakes his head, dismissing the lost projection. "That's all the information I can get out of it. Sorry! I'm sure there's enough there to make some kind of progress." He says, adjusting his tie and sunglasses, and peering around... "Oh! Hey, like that!" He says, hopping up off the walkway and drifting down with levitation towards what Theurgus just saw. "I don't know how to do magic. Can someone, um, magic in the direction of this thing?" He glances to Seifer, Theurgus, and Nie Li, all of whom are far more magical than he is. Kintoki also is, but he doesn't know that at all! The most he can do is try to scan the little thing to see if maybe there's anything mental going on in there. He's gathered that the crystalish folk were artificial life, so maybe there's still some artificial mind in there?
Theurgus	"Fools. Meddling with magicks and materials they do not understand." says Theurgus, shaking her head as the construct begins to overload with magic and explode. "Powerful magick to be sure, but the materials animated must be able to both handle the magicks and not absorb too much so they become unstable." she floats down lower, spotting the rainbowy crystal arrangement. "Go now and be swift, send Grimoire with all haste." she command to Arcana, who gathers herself up, and springs off a magic seal that looks suspiciously like a clock face back toward the Warpgate, vanishing from sight and presumably returning to Locus to send the Oracle. Theurgus then drops lower and lands near to the crystal formation, kneeling down after jamming her Relay into the ground nearby. "What happened here..."
Seifer Almasy	Seifer skids to a halt in front of the crystal formation. He doesn't crouch. He just looks at the thing for a moment. It's big, it's glowing, it's probably magical. He doesn't bother to draw from it - it's probaby the same sort of stuff that's in the air. Instead, he just sort of... ...pokes it. Thoughtfully. It's pretty much his only tool here, poking stuff thoughtfully. He's not exactly a scientist. He can make some guesses about what happened here politically, but, magically? Nope. Science-wise? Ha ha, no way.
Nie Li	The weird twisting motions at his temples and odd rants are enough to weird out Nie Li. He decides to keep Flamel at arm's length, but he's read about this guy. Dude seems trustworthy and competent! So he smiles at the explanation, and folds his arms while watching the sequence play out. His sharp eyes and ears record every detail, committing it to memory. "Or it doesn't continue, because every living person was teleported away and wasn't here to leave further impressions. The evidence suggests that they just weren't HERE when the place blew up. But doing that to a whole castle town... ridiculous. Who could pull it off?" He can only scratch his head. He's aware of such abilities as teleportation, but they're typically rare, expensive, or otherwise limited. How the hell do you exactingly teleport EVERY possible victim out of an ENTIRE TOWN with a fingersnap? That's beyond crazy. With a grunt, and no further words, Nie Li once again sits down in the quarter lotus position and slowly exhales. Some philosophical muttering commences, as he sinks into meditation. The muttering only lasts for a few moments, but Flamel Parsons might pick up tidbits such as 'The Great Way envelops but cannot dispute' and 'the depths of the heart, which is equally formless.' Whatever's going on, silvery light envelops Nie Li's body, a tight but subtle aura. Billowing up around that... the air sizzles and tingles, as huge swirls of the dense magical energy coaelsce around him and are drawn inwards. A secondary aura of vivid blue that wavers and billows like fire forms, with motes of the condensing energy periodically visible as it's sucked in like a protostar accreting more gas...
Captain Flint	Flint's suspicions weren't entirely unfounded. By the time the walkway is finished, he's seen all he needs to. Something went wrong with the conjured super soldier--or perhaps, something was made to go wrong, given the laughter of one diplomat in particular. "On top of the crater, prone, guns at the ready," mutters Flint to Silver. The quartermaster then relays the order, sending a chorus of shouts through the men. They run back down the length of the platform, past Flint and Silver, and begin taking up positions along the perimeter. Two pirates--one with shoulder length black hair a thin, curved sword at his hip, and another with curled blonde hair and matching beard, pass Flint to take up positions. "Joji. Billy. A word." Both pirates stop, and Flint explains a plan posed by Seifer. "I need the two of you to go with Theurgus' men. Get cleaned up, look for roads out of here. See if you can find any nearby kingdoms, figure out what happened." Both men nod. Billy, the blond haired pirate, is currently wielding an AK-47. Flint nods towards the weapon. "Give me your gun." Billy squints. "Why?" "Not now," spits the captain under his breath, looking around to make sure no one else witnesses the exchange. "You can find something else along the way. I need you gathering information, not arousing suspicion." "Are you trying to get me killed?" "I'm trying to do my fucking job. I /strongly/ suggest that you do yours," says the captain, inching closer to Billy with his hand upon the hilt of his sword. There is a brief, terse stare-down between the two, with Joji placing a hand upon his katana--but eventually, Billy shoves the rifle into Flint's hands, and the two pirates head off to the outskirts of the area, waiting to be received by Theurgus' LDF reinforcements. Meanwhile, Flint and Silver take up positions alongside their men, creating a potential crossfire should the object of interest down in the crater prove to be a hostile entity.
Sakata Kintoki	Now that the history of this giant crater has been revealed, Kintoki's looking even more disappointed. Most of what Flamel says about psychic impacts and investment goes right over his head, and Nie Li's alternative explanation just gets a blank stare from the shade-wearing Rider. No, th eonly thing left for him to do is pretty much what Seifer's already doing: Poke the shiny. "Hello? Anyone in there? I know you maguses like doing weird stuff to fit in things like that!" Does he? Not really. He's seen weird things, though, and he wouldn't put it past any of those magic-types to have figured out how to stuff themselves in strange rocks already. Flint's people get a curious look, though, and Kintoki smirks confidently after a few more moments of poking and prodding. "Hey! You think something big'll pop out of here?" Kintoki certainly hopes so.
Stella	Flamel isn't wrong. The crystal's alive. Asleep, but alive. It doesn't qualify as "life signs" exactly, but now that you're this close, even just touching it feels... different. It either survived the blast, or grew there afterwards. Poking at it with the sword prompts... some kind of response, Flamel can tell, as Seifer and Theurgus approach, but it's still struggling to wake up. Nie Li begins gathering ambient magic. It's mishmashed, not all from this area. No, there's... definitely different kinds of signatures. The ambient magic, and something else. Like magical poison in the air. Brought from somewhere else. Harmless in its current state, but if mixed in a magical ritual - Theurgus' accomplice will likely reach the same conclusion. Flint's men deploy. (I'm gonna @mail that tomorrow.) With repeated poking, and as Kintoki tries to prompt a response, the crystal rumbles and shoots out of the ground, revealing that, like an iceberg, it was much larger under the earth than over. Inside the clear crystal, the young woman appears to be sleeping. Or stuck? There's no spellwork to imply this is a trap, so it might be more like a cocoon. It might be what saved her. But she's not the only one still around. A second crystal rises a few feet away. This one is multicolored too, but not in a shiny diamond kind of way. It's a patchwork and a mess of materials. It cracks open and shatters, sending deadly shards of many different metals, some magical, in every direction, including at the woman's own crystal. The male golem's feet touch the ground. Judging by the fact a massive sword of gold and black metal forms in his hands, from his own body, and that he adopts a combat stance, it doesn't look like he's here to talk.
Theurgus	Charta is just coming through the Warpgate when stuff starts going down. She pauses, hanging back as a group of programs in military-esque gear follow soon after. "This is not good... There is harmful energy in the air here." she then goes to help organize the scout parties. Theurgus, meanwhile, stands and kips into the air, hovering a few feet back as the crystal cocoons emerge. A flash of blue hexagons deflect the incoming shards of metal, but the golem certainly looks unhappy to see them. "It appears hostile." she says, looking to Seifer for a moment to indicate she's speaking specifically to him. "Protect me. I will attempt to nullify the magicks animating it." A flash of light and code forms a staff in the magus' hand, and chanting commences, seeking out the binding magicks within the construct and trying to pick them apart.. like attempting to unraval a knot without cutting it.
Captain Flint	While Billy and Joji deploy, Flint, Silver and the rest of the men lay prone against the dirt at the mouth of the crater, angling their weapons down. An unbroken circle of muskets, flintlocks, repeating rifles, assault rifles surrounds the crystal, like a military history museum come to life. Flint and Silver share a concerned look, and he begins muttering instructions and designations into his radio. Several of the men, under orders from the captain, rise and retreat into the ruins of the town proper, to serve some unknown end. The rest form up to fill the gap caused by their departure. The crystal carrying the girl rises, and the captain's brow furrows. "Ready," he calls. A chorus of menacing clicks sounds through the line as all of the various firearms on display are brought to shoulders. The silence is deafening for a moment thereafter. When the second crystal rises, John Silver gives Flint a nervous look--a look that says 'which one do we aim for?' He doesn't have to wait long for his answer when a crystal shard slices through several of the men on the parameter. Flint seizes the moment before chaos can. "FIRE!" A hail of bullets from many an era--hollow point, 19th century cartridges, percussive balls, musket rounds--erupts downward much in the same way the crystal shards had. They are focused upon the male golem, and with Flint and Silver bellowing orders to 'starboard' and 'port' sides of the crater, coordinated enough to avoid allies. Several yards in the distance, the men who retreated under orders from the captain begin creating makeshift cover from any remaining bits of rubble not put to use in the earlier walkway--or just straight up walls of packed dirt, if no rubble remains. They're creating a point for people to retreat back to, if necessary, with staggered spots to take cover.
Seifer Almasy	So that happens. Seifer's already moving back as the golems rise. When the deadly shards snap out, Seifer's gunblade flashes through the air, lightning-fast. It's just like what Nie Li saw last night. Just, instead of parrying little shards of harmless crystals, Seifer's performing a ridiculous display, parrying deadly shards into deadly shards into deadly shards, knocking them this-way and that with ridiculous precision. It's like he's shooting pool, except all the balls are razor-sharp and actively moving, and he's knocking them into each other to make a clear space around himself, Theurgus, and the crystal (and Kintoki, by extension, and anyone else close enough to him). Seifer's gunblade comes up like a rapier. The stance, and the weapon, look ridiculous. He tilts his head back at Theurgus. "Aight, everybody who's got magic, you guys stay behind me. I'll play at range for the moment, stay back, an' keep you safe. See if you can all work together or some shit." Seifer points at Flint. "You an' your guys got guns, right? Start shootin'. Don't close. I don't like the look of that thing in melee. If it closes, I'm gonna move to intercept it." He casts Flamel a look. "See if you can get in its head. Maybe it's just scared or some shit an' we can make it an asset. Failing that, see if you can wake the other one up. Might be more friendly." Because it's a girl, and Seifer has a Flaw. To Nie Li, Seifer says, "You...uh..." "Man, I dunno. You tell me if I'm doin' this shit right while you show me how it's done." OK. The chaos of the battlefield is where Seifer lived. Yesterday, he learned about internal energy. He learned he could push it into stuff - like into a crystal to show what his soul looked like. That crystal was still in his pocket. It was a generic soul, apparently - nothing important, nothing interesting, nothing special, no particular aptitude. Once again, he was surrounded by people who were more special than he was. Once again, he was the guy with the big dreams that reality didn't care to fill. The guy who had to work ten times as hard for every scrap of acknowledgement and still didn't manage to make the cut. The guy who had clawed his way to the top, who had earned everything he had, and still got shown that it just Wasn't Enough, that Exceptional People could still reach Higher Heights than Seifer Almasy. His gauntleted hand closes into a fist. It's just forcing energy into a thing. It's just that. You just put the energy in something. Right? He didn't know he had it, until yesterday, but now that he was aware of it, now that he knew it existed, now that he got that it was a thing... It was just a matter of taking it and putting it somewhere. Seifer's gauntleted hand goes out. "HAH!" He doesn't know why he shouts. It's just a thing that feels right to do. There's a moment where Seifer just kind of looks ridiculous. Then there's an explosion near the golem as Seifer just forces his violent gunpowder ki into the air. There's no art, there's no training, there's no technique - there's just what Seifer's always had. Sheer, bloody-minded determination, and the willpower born of a mixture of big dreams and violent jealousy.
Sakata Kintoki	Now that's more like it! Kintoki doesn't know what he did that worked, but clearly it worked because he poked it. Eat that, magic and science nerds! This is the way of the golden. Now the question is wha tto actually /do/ about the sleeping crystal chick. "I knew it! Someone was hiding in there. Come on out, lady! It's safe!" Eager to trust whoever these people are that are investigating the same matter, his attention is quickly grabbed by the second crystal that appears and explodes shards all over the place. Kintoki slips back to pop a wheelie on Golden Bear, rolling off the back of the motorbike in a controlled backflip to use the vehicle as a shield against what's left of the deadly shower after Seifer's crazy parrying maneuver. "That's some golden moves, sword guy! Aah... Now this is what I was looking for! Let's rock and roll, punk!" Kintoki lets out an excited howl as he charges right at the golem, carrying his motorbike the whole way. Once he draws close enough, he swings it behind himself once to gather momentum before using the motorbike as an improvised club to try smashing the golem right in its... Face? Head? Upper.. Body? Yes.
Nie Li	Getting interrupted in the middle of Cultivation is the absolute worst. Nie Li's right in the middle of absorbing and refining some of the richest energy he's encountered in the Multiverse, and trusts his allies can handle the rest of the investigation. What good would he be in the middle of it all? Slowly - imperceptible to the naked eye - that silvery aura that clings tightly to his skin grows clearer and more defined. More intense. But no, it would take HOURS for a real change to be discerned unless one had a spectrometer on the job. And this isn't the time for that. Sensing the two hostile golems, Nie Li opens his eyes. The aura vanishes, replaced with a strange cloying darkness as his eyes shift from blue to solid black irises. His body wavers as he calmly begins to stand, seemingly pierced clean through by dozens of shards! Except... except, there's no blood. Instead the first few 'punctures' have ripped a hole clean through him, with edges of rippling and wispy darkness that spread like flames consuming a piece of paper. In under a second, he's simply gone, all trace of his presence off the radar. The crystals that appeared to have gone through him... well, they really did. They harmlessly strike the rubble that he was sitting next to, fragmenting or embedding themselves further as they will. Given a good ten seconds, he sizes his opponents up and the forces they have available. "That crystal composition's going to be hell to deal with. It'll dull physical attack, and I bet it'll diffuse soul force attacks." The only question is, why is it attacking, and what does it consider victory here? And what can he do to stop the damned things before they hurt his allies or wreck valuable evidence? "Gonna have to use a Yin-Yang Blast to do any serious damage to those things, I bet." Not that anyone can HEAR him while he's in Void Form. Speaking of which, Void Form dissipates after he repositions himself atop of a large hunk of castle keep wall rubble that gives him a vantage point on the fight. The clinging shadows also vanish, his eyes returning to normal. But the ring on his hand shimmers, wispy energies drawn out of it and forming swiftly into an ornate blue longsowrd. Nie Li simply raises it skywards and focuses a little power into it---- KRAKA-KOOOOOOM! A single but precisely aimed lightning bolt flies down from the heavens, striking at the sword-golem! It's a test strike, to see how well that thing handles getting hit by DIVINE LIGHTNING.
Flamel Parsons	"Woah, hey there big guy!" Parsons mutters anxiously, pulling back from the crysalis and turning swiftly around to the large crystaline foe and its patchwork colors. "Hey! Take it easy here, I'm actually just about the same as you. Here! Let me show you really fast." He plants two of his fingers on the right temple, and holds his left hand out in a dramatic, flashy battle-pose of his own... And then seemingly does very little himself. His body flickers with power and he's rushing not for a melee attack or a ranged assault, but to surge into the mind-system of the crystal. If there's a mind in there, or a mind-like object, he's going to try to breach into it. Whether it's complex enough to have some vast internal environment or simple enough to have a low-stress abstracted unit of contact, Parsons intends to get inside and "authenticate" as much as he can that Flamel Parsons is, himself, a mineral-golem. Which shouldn't be correct, right? Not exactly. Because Parsons, despite looking like a human, is in fact an artificial mind crammed into a chunk of psychic rock. So hey! At least that works. And if he can authenticate that way, he can try to assure and assuage this mass of murder, trying to hit it with a rush of psychic assurance and calm like he'd gone in for a lot of punches. And if there's no sapient mind in this thing, or if it's too blocked up with traumas and other suchlike to make the progress there, he's going to turn around and try a similar authentication with the girl in the rainbow crystal behind him too, to see if he can make some sort of telepathic link. If SHE'S going to come bursting out of that thing and try to stab them, they should at least be ready for it!
Stella	DEFEND. Magic attempts to undo the golem at the assembly-level. It resists, through what is evidently a will to live. The king might have mismanaged certain things but it seems his boasts weren't ALL empty. That golem wants to live as much as all parties present. The fact he's a patchwork of so many different magical materials might be helping him withstand immediate unmaking, too. Bullets crash into the golem - the first rounds bounce off, the seconds, crack its armor, the third penetrate. It rumbles, additional plates of different materials growing over the wounds, and making the golem larger. Seifer makes the air explode. The golem stands its ground, metal plates shooting out of its leg and anchoring it to the ground. It's tough. Armor that gets blasted away gets replaced with more, larger, armor. DEFEND. Kintoki smashes his motorcycle into the golem. The plates anchoring it to the ground crack and bend as it uses its massive sword to block the hit. More armor covers the cracks, replaces them, makes the golem bigger. Heavier. Slower. Nie Lie's divine lightning finally defeats the golem's anchoring, and it's send back - a single meter, but it's a meter of ground, and it proves its defenses can be worn down. More plating. More metal. It grows again. Flamel attempts to link up with it. There's a mind in there, but it's... confused. It doesn't have a concept of language or communication yet. It's a berserk baby in the learning stages. There's nothing to see here - it needs time to learn. It's not a person yet. It could be, eventually. DEFEND. But the girl is another story. Flamel picks up on that one word, echoing over and over until the crystal... it doesn't crack, so much as parts open. It partially withdraws into her body. She leaps out - Stella leaps out - and crystal blades appear in her hands. She surges towards the golem. "DEFEND!" The golem swings its massive sword down. It cleaves partway through the girl but is stopped there - the ground under her own feet gives way from the impact, and whatever attack it was trying to launch has been stopped. The girl neither bleeds nor reacts to the injury, jamming her own swords into the golem. "HE CANNOT MOVE. DESTROY HIM!" she urges. Indeed the golem's sword is stuck in her, and she isn't letting it retrieve it. It's a sitting duck.
Sakata Kintoki	Kintoki's grinning wider as the assault on the goelm continues, but it's not really because of the golem. No, it's because of all the crazy techniques on display. Why wouldn't he? Looks truly can be deceiving. Between the ground exploding, the sky exploding, and the other crystal exploding, the fact that Kintoki's swinging his motorbike around probably isn't flashy enough! Alas, with the girl emerging from the crystal to eat the golem's sword with her body, he can't just bring out his Noble Phantasm. He's a warrior, but he's not a brute! Sometimes. "You probably don't wantt o be standing there, rock lady!" That's all the warning Stella gets before Kintoki leaps into the air, going much higher than a person should reasonably be able to by just jumping. He goes and goes and goes, first up, then starts descending rapidly not unlike a lightning bolt. Were someone to look, they'd see that Kintoki is also literally covered in lightning as he comes down. "GOLDEN SMAASH!" He roars as he dives right for that immobilized golem, glowing with lightning all around him as he aims a massive diving kick straight for the golem! Hopefully, that rock lady doesn't move any closer to the golem than she already is.
Theurgus	Well this is far from ideal. At least the thing isn't being allowed to get close to hack her to pieces. She continues to float, twirling her staff briefly as the others hammer into the golem. Then the other cocoon opens and Stella leaps out, the strange girl from the projections. She seems to be an ally, so when urged to destroy the other golem, the Mad Magician complies. "Be ready to disenage! Do not cross the boundary or you will be lost forever." she warns. "Phantom howl of the gibbous moon. Lohing sigh of the black abyss. Raucous laughter upon the high mountain. Lamenting wail in the blue valley. Appointed Star. Greater Protector, Grant unto thy vessel a boon of thy power. I summon the Wheel of Fate, spin unto this world, and render judgement. BLASPHEMOUS THEORETICAL!" Though the magick surges, Resource flowing out of the Relay into the spell circle surrounding the woman's feet, the effect doesn't manifest. Not yet. Hearing the radio, she gathers the power for her Driver, but holds it back, just at that cusp of overflow, the culmination just before it breaks free. "I shall hold my spell in reserve, then." she states, eying the two golems closely.
Seifer Almasy	Stuff explodes. It's not much. It's not enough. But the air explodes. He put the energy into the air and it went where it was supposed to go and it blew up on contact. Hard work. Ten times the work for a scrap of accomplishment that somebody naturally gifted could do with a breath. But if it took ten times the work to equal them, then he'd work a hundred times harder. No. A thousand times harder. If it took ten times the work to equal someone with a gift, then he'd surpass it a hundred times over. And if they could achieve higher than that with practice, with technique, with refinement, then he'd surpass that with a million times the effort. And if they could match that... He'd just keep going. But it also exhausts him. He didn't really know what he was playing with. He didn't understand the energy he was using, the power he had learned he had. He had PUSHED, with all his effort, and pushed all his effort into the air. It had exploded, sure, and that felt great, but he was exhausted. Drained. More energy lost from that than a whole day of swinging his gunblade. More energy wasted than he could possibly have expected. But the triumphant grin on his face says that he's not upset about it at all. And then Flamel gives him the news over the radio, and Seifer comes to a decision. He gives out orders. He closes his eyes. And he goes to prove his wife and a very cute boat one hundred percent right. Seifer draws on Greg, not on himself. He sacrifices some memories, some useless grey days he didn't need from a long time ago, and he goes shooting forward like a rocket. Kintoki's already gearing up in a jump. Seifer pushes off a rock and brings up Hyperion to try and block it. Hah. Block it. He might as well try and block lightning. The kick hits Hyperion dead on, and he can feel the impact through every single limb. He can feel the sheer power behind that strike, and there is no way he'd be competing with it on even grounds, let alone like this. He brings up his arm to brace Hyperion with the gauntlet, to try and struggle just long enough, to deflect. Kintoki's power is...enormous. Kintoki's strength is absurd. Kintoki is a force of nature, a gifted Heroic Spirit, and Seifer Almasy is a human being who works ten times as hard to achieve what the gifted are handed at birth. There is no place in the world where Seifer can match Kintoki like this. But he's going to throw everything he's got into it. He throws his own superhuman strength, like throwing a candle into a hurricane. He throws his own superhuman durability. He throws skill beyond even gods, compensating as best he can for blocking in the air. He drags the sword upwards, a grinding, screeching sound as the lightning pours into his body and everybody gets a flashing X-Ray view of Seifer Almasy's skeleton, and the pain is enormous, and all Seifer's trying to do, all he wants to do, /all he can do/, is muster up every ounce of force he can to deflect Kintoki just enough that the only thing he'll hit will be Seifer. Seifer hits the ground. He bounces. He tries to stand up. As Kintoki lands, one way or the other, there's an explosion as the scraps of ki Seifer was trying to grab are released, and Seifer falls forward in agony.
Nie Li	All of that pounding and... and a different Golem wakes up to assist them. What the HELL. Wait, is this a golem, or a girl? He's getting a weird feeling from her aura. And she looks more like a girl than a THING made out of stuff... It boggles his mind. What just happened?! Well, Seifer's given the game plan, and this newcomer doesn't seem like a threatening. So, subdue the golem, huh? There's not much he can do there. Physical binding is out, so... So he's not going to even try. Instead he stares down at the golem, his gaze sharply narrowing and a ferocious look building behind his eyes. And he gathers it. His Soul Force is mobilized like an invisible flame, circulating through his body and gathering more and more as he focuses. And with a single hiss and a glare that could itself split a man in half if looks could kill...! In the right spiritual vision, one MIGHT just see an impossibly thin ray of light lancing out from Nie Li's forehead for that of the Sword-Golem. Or anything approximating it. This beam carries with it something that anything that desires to live - and thus, must intrinsically understand fear - to quiver. It's the feeling of hands crushing the throat and blades splitting open the belly. It's an enormous pressure of cold knives held to one's everything. It's the crimson eyes of a bloodthirsty demon staring one in the face and roaring. It's the fury of a storm that continues on with a single-minded fury. It's the sheer, heart-stopping, bone-jarring, blood-curling PRESSURE of a warrior who has survived ten thousand battles and honed his very will into a finely polished blade. All of this seeks to simply SLAM into the 'newborn mind' and crush its thoughts and feelings into a quivering corner. Make it metaphorically want to piss itself silly, gibber, and cower.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons is suddenly falling on his ass as he falls back away from the falling sword, and it's only by the very timely interaction of the mystery girl awoken from the crystal that he doesn't wind up crushed by it. Yes, the dangers of psychic projection! Personal physical vulnerability. But with the blade stopped, Parsons can act a little more directly. "Woah! Woah woah-- Hey! Thanks! Try to hold it! Just hold, we can handle this, I promise!" He pulls back hard, but as he does, he starts restoring his link. As he does, he opens up an option for the others to follow him, using his Mass Projection efforts, to invite the others to attack mentally as well. And this time he focuses hard less on interacting with the mind as if it were coherent, and more on attacking the raw substrate. He goes in for the throat of the aggressive energies. Parsons rushes in to attack its capacity to generate aggression itself by essentially trying to grab the mind by a psychological grip and kind of choke it. He tries to invade, withstand the heat of it, and get the aggressive infrastructure in a chokehold. And then with that, he tries to blast his own raw optimism into the mind of the thing, forcing it to experience a tremendous quantity of 'things will be okay' mental energy that goes with his attack on the aggression. Ideally, this will mean a downturn in aggression and an upturn in calm! But maybe a bad state of panic or a berserker state of optimistic violence. But it's the best way he's got to calm this thing down into a capturable state where it'll think going with the Concord is the right idea! And of course, he calls out to the mystery girl in telepathy, sort of approximating the idea of their intention in the best telepathic vocabulary they've got shared.
Captain Flint	The barrage of gunfire from Flint's men pauses. Some of the firing line ducks out of sight to reload their weapons. Those with more modern means of ammunition simply see to it with the telltale click of a freshly reinserted magazine. The few seconds of (relative) silence leading up to Kintoki's attack allows him to listen to a conversation on the radio. Seifer thinks they can take both and make assets of each. The captain is dubious of that claim--but now isn't the time to appear as if he's not a team player. "Cease fire!" Freshly reloaded guns are held at the ready. Over the radio, he relays an order to his men, shouting to be heard over the din of battle. Kintoki might be able to hear it, if he himself isn't Calling His Attack Name too loudly. "If there's anything left of that thing when he's done with it, Almasy wants it." The veterans don't mind the order--but the newbies among the crew seem confused bordering on mistrustful. For the time being, everyone obeys. As Seifer rises up into the air to block Kintoki's Golden Smash, Flint springs off of the ground and sprints over to a bag of supplies adjacent one of his men, tearing it open. Seifer wants it captured? He can do that. It's not his specialty--but he's had the most dangerous thing anyone can give him: time to think. The crew's entire supply of black powder is in the bag, enough to support the musket and flintlock users for several days. Flint vaults over the side of the crater, sliding down, the heavy duffel bag held close to his chest. Keeping his eyes on the male golem (and Kintoki) like a lion tamer without a chair, the captain tosses the entire bag up against the wall closest to the golem. He doesn't know how much he should be using--but he knows what effect he wants it to have, and for him, most of the time, that's enough. Hurriedly scrambling away from the battle proper and back up to the safety of the lip, he stands upright and empties his M1911 into the bag. It ignites, exploding, hurling great columns of dirt into the air, and blowing a chunk out of the 'wall' of the crater. A tide of dirt comes roaring back down the incline, rushing to partially bury the male golem. The captain releases the magazine and reloads, slamming it back in. "Silver! Follow Parsons' lead!" It takes the quartermaster a minute to catch on to what's happening--but he is a quick learner. Silver opens fire on the projected aggression, commanding the rest of the men to do the same while Flint rejoins them in cover.
Stella	Stella has the golem locked in place. And yet, Seifer saves him. Them, technically - Stella had not moved, even at Kintoki's request. She could take it, she felt. She hasn't learned the concept of mortality, as applied to herself, yet. She kind of does when Nie Li shines his eye like that. She isn't the target - lucky her - but it still resonates. That's... what IS that feeling? It's wrong. She doesn't want to know its name. It's WRONG. Fear is its name, though, and the golem feels it too. The sight of a massive, metal golem shaking might be odd, but it does just that. It falls on its ass, confused, flailing. It screeches, wordlessly. Flint then burries the golem in rubble. Stella takes a step back to avoid the fate. This allows Flamel to strike the golem with his invasive powers. It's now terrified, among other things. Flamel pushes optimism into it, drives the fear that Nie Li inflicted into it away. The golem lacks a concept of friendship, but that's the seeds of one planted right there. (?) Astre will remember this. Unfortunately, the golem isn't its own master. Something... tugs at its existence. It begins glowing, brighter, brighter, and several plates of gold and silver material across its body begin resonating with a recall order. The golem... crumbles. Its materials detach, fall apart into a pile of scrap metal. A beam of light shoots out, and away from the scene, towards the sky, out of range. Not in a straight line, to avoid being tracked. It has been recalled by its master - its soul has been, at any rate. Its body is right here, a valuable pile of rare and magical materials and nothing else. Stella removes the sword still stuck inside her, and rainbowy crystals fill the massive wound that split her in two, before regaining the hue of her clothes and skin. She couldn't conceal that odd shine, though - she gleams like crystal, no matter how human-colored she tries to be. What she says to Flamel is the same thing she says out loud for all to hear: "I must... defend Vadora. I must destroy threats to it." That's her intention. Who's going to break the bad news?
Sakata Kintoki	Impact! Kintoki grins at first as he feels his kick sink, pusing forward with all his might just to see that golem break! Except it's... Not the golem he kicked? Wait. Is that a person? It's that blonde dude with the weird sword! Once he realizes his mistake, Kintoki bounds backwards with a bewildered gaping mouth expression. It's not like anyone could see his eyes behind the shades, anyway. "Wh... What the hell?! You..." He takes a moment to think, to figure out just what he should be feeling about all of this. On one hand, the golem wasn't destroyed by hisk ick. On the other hand... Taking a hit like that head on? Facing unrelenting force with what looks to be just a fancy sword and no crazy magical bullshit? "... You got guts, kid! Heh... Maybe I was wrong about you. We'll dance next time, got it?!" Kintoki laughs as he over to offer Seifer a hand, notwithstanding the whole kicked-by-the-sky thing that just happened moments ago. "What gives, though? The lady wanted us to break that thing. So why...?" He looks over towards Stella, gauging her reaction to the non-destruction of the golem and the rest of the Concord seemingly joining in on that non-destruction via capturing it. With the immediate threat out of the way, it does seem like she's calm. A little too calm, maybe, what with the hole sword-impaling issue that's quickly being mitigated when she just takes it out. He'll definitely have to come back to this world another time. For now, though, there's the little issue of the rock lady wanting to protect- "The crater?" He blurts out, looking around a few times before turning back to Stella. "Or is that somewhere else? It's just you and us out here."
Flamel Parsons	Parsons' link is severed abruptly. Not that he wanted to keep it that much with the current recall signal and the intensity of Nie Li's assault, but it definitely is. He pulls himself back, tugging himself away from the rubble, and lets out a breath of relief. "Woah! That was a fiasco, wow. I think we made a friend! Kind of, anyway. We should look around for more of those guys sometime." Great optimism, Parsons. He pulls himself onto his feet, working out the strain in one arm, and then says, "Huh. Oh! You're like me! You've got a purpose, right?" He looks a bit uneasily at the crater, anxiously, but then puts a hand to his chin, conspicuously thinking. "It looks like someone caused a lot of damage to Vadora! Which is a problem. We were going to try funding Vadora! This is really a terrible situation. We're the Concord, we're thinking of investigating what happened here and trying to trace who hurt one of our prospective ally nations. I'm sure that with some time and a lot of hard work, we can find any part of Vadora that wasn't hurt in all this, and track down who did all this!" He is practically /beaming/ with optimism. It's pouring out of his body. "Would you like any help protecting Vadora? We could go make sure any Vadora settlements are okay, and I could try to find the source of that recall signal, and we could investigate those other nations that sent the envoys. Do you think that'll help out? At least the part about destroying threats to Vadora. You could help us out with that, if you want!" All smiles, all cheer, all friendliness. "I'm Flamel Parsons! I'm a Psychonaut and I work for the Concord. I'm like you, sort of. Do you have a name? Or do I just call you something like Protector?" He reaches out a hand to cheerfully shake the mystery crystal girl's.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer sort of struggles to stand up, even with Kintoki's help. He's...exhausted, by more than just that kick, and his wounds are obvious and /bad/. Seifer wobbles for a moment, as Kintoki delivers the news, standing on Hyperion like it's a cane. Amazingly, though, his nice fancy clothes only got scuffed. Largely because Hyperion took most of the hit, and Hyperion is really, really durable, and everything else was the electricity. Seifer just sort of nods at Kintoki's statements, both the 'we'll dance later' and what he said to the golem. Instead, Seifer sort of holds out his hand to the girl. "Hey." "Seifer...Almasy." "Hand of the Concord." "King of the Moon." "Fox Knight." "Nice...nice to meet you."
Nie Li	Aw crap, NOW what happened?! The mind he'd tried to assault is simply NOT there and the Golem falls apart. Nie Li blinks, the ferocious look he'd adopted vanishing instantly. He's actually surprised that such a trick WORKED. Artificial minds rarely understand fear very well in the way that humans and beasts do. Not that he's run into very many. As the situation dies down and Seifer introduces himself, Nie Li takes a flying leap and lands near him, but is examining Stella a bit warily. "Vadora? You're standing in... what's left of it. Something happened here and now everything's a wreck. However... the people might still be alive. And since Vadora is a Concord associated nation, this investigation in what happened is only beginning. I'm curious though. ... Who and what are you? I'm Nie Li."
Stella	Crater. Stella processes this by looking around. She pauses, and her feet connect to the ground in unseen ways. She feels the area out. This really is Vadora. Her gaze lowers. She's... it's hard to tell. She's got that flat, unemotional look tainted by small pieces of "attempting to process an emotion". Loss. She doesn't know it by name, but she knows it by feeling now. It's wrong, too. Just like the other one earlier. It's not good. But Flamel is bleeding optimism everywhere. No, it's not even that. It has no effect on her. What has an effect is that he's offering her purpose. She just lost hers. She needs a new one. She's... desperate, for a new one? "I am Stella. I was named that because the crystal I am made of fell from the sky." Stiff. Rigid. She's not an experienced orator, by any stretch. At least she can talk. "I will serve the Concord to avenge Vadora. I will help." That's a yes for Flamel. Seifer. She saw Seifer protect the other golem. She makes an assumption. "You are a knight, too? I am a knight. I protect..." She pauses. "Protected. Vadora. Parts of me were made for that." Nie Li repeats a question. Stella answers, ever voiced like she's reading from a book. "I am Stella. I am..." She thinks. "Weapons. Swords. Armor. A knight. I am those things."
Flamel Parsons	"Woah! You're even more like me." Parsons beams at Stella. "I was also made out of a rock that fell from space! Well, my brain is anyway. I'm still figuring out if I can make my skull unfold and show it off or something. Here, let me try." He twitches abruptly and a spark of electricity pulses out of one ear. "Nope, no go. Well, anyway! We're going to look into everything we can about how to help you do that then, because I know /we're/ interested. Want a radio? You can talk to all my friends!" He fishes around in one pocket. "Shoe-phone? No, you have boots. Pen-phone? No, you don't have pockets do you? Pill-phone? You don't have a stomach I bet. Here! Earpiece! Here's one." Parsons stops pulling junk out of his jacket and hands off an earpiece to Stella, a spare for when his telepathy gives out. "Let's get you acclimated with the Concord. Our people will work on figuring out the situation around Vadora and how you can work on making sure whatever's left is defended and whatever isn't is avenged. It'll take hard work, but I know you'll do right by their memories!" His hands are planted on his waist and he's just beaming that positivity even more. It's /heinously/ inappropriate for the situation. "Speaking of which, I'm guessing that whatever did this to your nation is probably dealing with an WMD or MAD Psychohazard. So I'm going to help out so I can hunt it down and massacre it!" He sounds briefly a little more bloodthirsty than optimistic, but it reverts instantly. "I hope we can work together, Stella!"
Captain Flint	Flint slides down the incline, coming to a stop before Nie Li, Seifer, Flamel, and Stella. All around the mouth of the crater, his men stand, beginning with Silver. None of them join him, however, as they're all awaiting some further order, and many of them seem unconvinced that Stella is friendly. A raised hand from Flint at least reduces the tension to manageable levels. "I am called Flint. The man with the cane is John Silver. He, and the men surrounding this crater, work for me. I work for the Concord." Stella's answers betray a certain inexperience. The captain gives a sidelong glance to Seifer--the man who reports to Priscilla. He'll need to make a good impression, if he's to secure lasting Concord support for his own endeavors. He pauses, affixing the golem with an appraising look. His hand rests idly upon the hilt of his saber, fingers tapping the crossguard as Flamel explains next steps. When there's an opportunity, he takes it, stepping forward. "I've stood where you're standing," says the captain in a low, even tone. "Surrounded by the wreckage of everything which defined me. I've felt what you've felt," he admits, his voice allowing a measure of calculated vulnerability. "Loss. /Anger./ Someone has taken your life from you, added insult by leaving you stumble blindly around in the ashes." The captain's grip upon his sword tightens. "People stole from me, too. And in the short time I've been with the Concord I'm closer than I've ever been to making them pay. Taking from /them./ When my compatriots say you'll have the chance to avenge this insult, they're not lying," says the captain, his eyes wide. Those seafoam pools seem to swell, threatening to swallow whatever they look upon. His voice seems to swell, growing in intensity without volume, words spoken by a man who knows all too well the human voice is as much an instrument as a violin or a harpsichord. "These are not people who hide behind the law while good men starve. They're not people who sneak from shadow to shadow like thieves in the night. They understand a fundamental truth: they keep what is theirs and fear no one, and rain hell upon anyone who'd dare take it from them." "Stella... welcome to the Concord." He turns his back on her for a moment, slowly circling to face each and every one of his men. "What are you waiting for?" he shouts. "Get down here... and meet your sister." The men descend the sloped walls of the crater, and begin to welcome her, handshakes and brohugs, introducing themselves, offering her drinks from their private reserves. They attempt to make her feel a new emotion, perhaps another in a long line she's yet to give name to. They attempt to make her feel Welcome. They attempt to make her feel Accepted.
Stella	There is that long stretch during which, after accepting Flamel's offering of a piece of ear, Stella fidgets with it and talks to people. At least the idea of long range communication isn't totally alien to her. Wizards got her used to it, on a much much smaller scale. Then at a random point she kneels. To Flamel, she asides: "I do not think there is anything left. If there is, I cannot feel it." She also says, simply: "I did not see what happened. I was to kill the envoys as a declaration of open war, but there was blinding light, and then..." It's a blur. Fuzzy. Nothing. Next thing she knows she's waking up to help them. With Flint introducing himself, Stella replies: "Hello, Flint and John Silver. I am Stella." Or so she already said. "I do not think you have stood where I am standing," she corrects, taking a step aside. "I do not see your boot print under mine." "And I am not blind, and there are no ashes here." So far this is all COMPLETELY CORRECT. "It is good that you will make them pay for stealing from you, though." Hey, she knows THAT word. Common usage. She's not that lost a cause. The welcome isn't lost on her, at least. "Thank you for your welcome." She turns to Flamel. "I do not need to detach your head." She reaches for his head. To touch and feel, mostly. REVEAL YOUR SECRETS, WEIRD METAL ORE CRYSTAL SHE'S NEVER HEARD OF. She won't actually gleam anything from it, she just finds it interesting to touch new kinds of metals.