Scene #7360: The True Meaning

Owner	Pose
Samhain	SOME SHOPPING MALL LATE AFTERNOON It's a busy day before Christmas, where people who are doing their last-minute holiday shopping are packed up in the stores at the shopping mall, buying whatever they can and bringing their kids to see the Mall Santa and stuff like that. Or at least they should be, but Mall Santa was merged with the decorative Christmas tree and is now a giant monster, as his original mind is trapped inside a photo. 5rYep, it's one of those days. Treenta Claws is rampaging through the mall, a big monster, screaming for all to hear. "I JUST WANTED TO GET PAID! FEED MYSELF, PAY MY ALIMONY, MAYBE BUY THAT NEW GUITAR. BUT I'M STUCK IN A CRAPPY JOB WITH BRATS ALL DAY, NO APPRECIATION, AND A SUCKY BOSS." His garlands wrap around to grab a shop sign, grappling out, and rip it off the hinge, swinging it at a group of shoppers nearby. This might be dangerous. ---- MEANWHILE: Samhain is sitting outside a store selling school supplies, window already broken by looters who started as soon as the monster attacked. In his industrial worker outfit and welding mask, the seven foot tall behemoth of a man is looking thoughtfully at a backpack. Next to him is what can only be described as a 'Action Cowboy Bond Villain', a man with a thick physique, a barrel-chest, pure msucle but in a bulkier way than Samhain's tall, with a golden claw replacing an arm. He has a black cowboy hat on, while wearing a trenchcoat. "Are you serious right now? Are you really thinking about becoming not just a sheep, but a lamb?" Samhain doesn't glance away from the backpack when he replies. "It could be fun. I might learn something, Desperado." Desperado just laughs bitterly. "Sammy, boy, you're a tiger. You can't go masquerading as anything else!" "I didn't ask you to come here to scold me. I asked you to come to witness my new Fearsframe. Also, that's not how you pronounce my name." They are Clear Villain Types. The monster is absolutely their fault.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	A heavily armored green hoverbike with plates set in intimidating brutalist angles pulls into the fire lane at the mall's entrance. Cries of "Sir! Sir--you can't park there!" are ignored, as a green mohawked mass of muscle stacked as high as Samhain trudges single-mindedly towards the front doors with a slight smile on his face. The bike is gradually deconstructed before the confused eyes of those onlookers oblivious or bold enough to still be here following the Santa Tree's rampage. The Green Knight throws the doors open, just in time to hear the desparing monster. The sign crashes into him--because he jumps several feet into the air to block it with his bulk, his coat fanning out behind him as splinters and fragments are flung to either side. The force of the throw sees him knocked momentarily onto his back. Rising up, Bercilak's brow is furrowed with determination. He's going to deal with that, but first... he turns to the people who his intervention has guarded, hands raised in a calming gesture. "I shalt see to him," says the mohawked man with a nod of his green head to the rampaging Fearsframe. "Ensese what thou wilt while-sum I do--and Merri Crist-masse!" Steal what you want while I deal with this guy, in other words. It's spreading the christmas spirit! Once he's spread a little cheer, he challenges the Fearsframe with a bellow: "HARK! Al the things thou coveit, thou may hath -withoute- harminge the ungilti! The ilksame chaunce as thei wert yeven," he says with a nod towards the people he's just given carte blanche to loot, "So als I yeven unto thee. Dost thou hath the nerve to sese hit?"
Kale Hearthward	(There's a bit of timey-wimey stuff going on w/r/t narrative - Kale's not had his intro scene yet, but there's no likely path from that that doesn't end with him joining the Paladins and going off on multiversal adventures, so if we all just close our eyes and cover our ears and chant 'timing errors go away' we'll be fine) Malls are malls. Saints of gift giving are saints of gift giving, no matter what world, even if they're wearing red suits and have pointy eared footservants instead of wearing oversized vests (with lots of pockets for gifts) and visiting children the world over on a merchant sailing ship. That's all familiar, broadly. What's not familiar is the giant tree monster. That doesn't map to the traditions Kale knows very well at all. At the last second, the hawk-man dives in, jet-boots blazing as he tackles the people and pushes them out of harms way (gently, with only minor bruising). "Beware, you arborous fiend!" he calls once he lands and squares off with the tree monster. "Your terrorizing of this shopping center ends today!" He glances over at Bercilak. "And - um, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying but it's probably the same thing! Right!" He draws one of his swords, and returns his attention fiend-ward. "So surrender now, and nobody has to play arborist!"
Samhain	Bercilak goes in to block a sign, as the civilians run off, saved by his intervention. One of them in fact goes to grab some stuff, but the others just book it. Bercilak challenges the Fearsframe. Immediately, he'll realize the giant Christmas Tree With An Anime Face isn't that smart, and is kinda in a daze. Some sort of failure, maybe. It's all but caught in a repeat loop of the previous statement. But... The Treenta Claws does, in fact, end up changing course, once Samhain translates. "Comrade, he's saying you can go steal that guitar." The Fearsframe roars, and then tosses out the garlands again - this time at a music store, trying to rip guitars out through the windows and pull them to him. As Kale demands surrender, he growls, moving to charge straight into him in an attempt to scare him off! "Maybe I deserve something nice once in a while!" Desperado looks towards Bercilak and Kale. "Pardon his stupidity. Sammy here used a frame on a weakling, someone he didn't like, instead of on someone with a real dark heart, y'all get me? He's a bit of a loser for that reason, but, he should be a decent and powerful addition to our monster family." "That's still not how you pronounce my name." Samhain finally picks out a backpack, and moves to remove it from the store pile. He trudges over to Bercilak. It's too small for him, as any backpack will be, and it's navy blue. "What do you think of this one?"
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"Yea, verily I am!" Bercilak declares, likely eliminating any faith that Kale has in Bercilak not telling people to loot. "Him, and al thei who loten here still." He nods, clapping Kale on the shoulder with a hand big enough to cover most of his face were it not for the beak. "Thou als! Fuck this mart," he adds with a dismissive tone. He steps aside, evidently deciding that any beef between Kale and the treeman shall remain solely between them. After all, Kale came here to play hero--decidedly not a civlian. Instead of getting in between that, he remains unarmored and takes a look at Samhain's selection of backpack. "It heme wel with thy vestments," he says, nodding and gently pressing a finger at the collar of Samhain's outfit. Navy is a good color on him, or so says the Green Knight. "And thou--thou must be Desperado, yea? Bercilak of the High Wasteland am I cleped, or the Green Knight." His handshake is firm. "I bileve that thou may hath thine allies withoute tormentinge the minds of the lothfolk. Doth a shade of yon Fearsframe not exist alredi in the herte of thy chosen Santa?"
Kale Hearthward	"I'm - I'm sorry, what?" calls Kale, glancing over briefly as he starts casting with his free hand, shaping a gust of wind. "Did you say you made this?" He casts, and then a split second later jumps - the spell takes form, a curving upswell that routes around the Treenta Claws in a tight spiral, and which Kale rides upwards, ducking and weaving through the claws and branches till he can get a perch, pun not intended, on the Treenta Claws's shoulder or back (or just 'branches', or even just 'somewhere that's not on the ground or in front of it'). "Also - no! Don't steal! What in Gale's name is going on here!" "Look - if you made this thing, then... unmake it! Undo it! Otherwise I'm going to have to take you in!"
Blurr	You know those cars that are sometimes parked in malls, all shiny and not a scratch on them? Also all surrounded with red velvet ropes and carpets to make them look extra fancy but locked so no one can get in because they're only for people to gaze upon and wish they had one of those so that they'll enter the sweepstake where they have about a one in a million chance of winning? Yes, today there is one of those. It's blue and white and slick and beautiful. Seriously, it must not even be a factory car. It looks more like some custom rig belonging to someone with more money than they know what to do with. But when the Treenta Claws starts tearing into that music shop, sending its customers and employees screaming and running for cover, the car...stands up. Yes, yes it -is- one of those days, isn't it? When it rains, it pours. Anyway, there is a cacophony of mechanical sounds as panels shift and gears turn until it's a car any more but a biped mechanoid that looks like it may have been made out of the same parts only rearranged a lot. Somehow, the top of its head manages to only barely brush the ceiling of the mall. But there's no time to waste. Blurr darts toward the monster, hopefully not stepping on anyone along the way. He doesn't know what kind of creature it is, but hopefully electricity will make it hurt. Or stop, or something. He draws it upon getting into close range and fires the high-voltage weapon at the thing dead center.
Samhain	As Bercilak steps past and favors the backpack, Samhain nods, and pockets it in another dimension through a little photoframe that appears. "I'll take it, then. I'm going to enroll in school." "Sammy-" "Stop calling me that. Despy." Desperado immediately groans. "Shaw. You're a monster. Are you really gonna study all day and do homework and eat out of 'bentos'?" "Yes. I am. It's a path to my happy ending." Samhain replies, as he goes looking for pencils and notebooks. Desperado just grunts, and turns to Bercilak. "The torture is part of the fun. Besides, he /wants/ to torment them. Otherwise he wouldn't. Fearsframes don't torment humans because they gotta, yanno? He's got pent up hatred and rage." Kale rides onto Treenta Claws' back, and starts talking. Samhain turns around. "I can't. I'd have to kill the Fearsframe to do that, and I don't want to." He holds up a photoframe with a star indent on the back, with a mall santa pictured inside, slumbering and trapped. "This is the original person. That there is Treenta Claws, our new friend. Please be gentle if you're going to hurt him." He doesn't seem to actually care, Samhain just going back to pencils. Quotas! The electrity from the sudden car-robot surges into Treenta. It freezes up, paralyzed through the quills, as ornaments slowly start to pop up. It can't currently move fast...but it's planning something violent now that it's been stopped from robbing! "He was just getting peaceful, too!" Desperado laughs. "Now, when that shock wears off, you're really gonna see some ACTION!" A pose with that claw, like he's having a bizarre adventure.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	At the sight of the car transforming into a towering robot, Bercilak laughs, crying out in the kind of surprise one typically reserves for brand new un-robot cars delivered to one's doorstep with decorative bows. "ILLEOOOOOQS," he cries, slapping both knees before pointing in Blurr's direction. Elbowing Samhain, "Didst thou ESPY that?! Golem carte!" Of course, the tree was going to get taken down. Why put his own axe towards that cause, when the robot car and the spellcaster are clearly willing to do it instead? There's plenty of time for him to indulge what he's really curious about--why Samhain feels the need to make Fearsframes. "'Tis bet to maken frends the old wei--thusly wouldst thou maken frends withoute the tormentise of ifolke, ne nede of quelling the beste thither to free theim." As he follows along, he smashes the window of an electronics store within the mall, using his bare fist. Shards of glass embed themselves in his bloodied knuckles, only to be pushed out in seconds by his rapid healing factor. He steps through the hole he made and makes for the spot where the consoles are stored, there to distribute them to fleeing shoppers with a grin and a 'Merri Crist-masse' for each.
Kale Hearthward	"Well - you shouldn't have created it, then!" calls Kale, still clinging to the monster's back with a foot and a hand as he looks out at Samhain. He seems a bit put off. He'd expected - anticipated - being told off, being met with harsh words or harsh actions (violence) or being met with, well, with something more than being told a passive 'I can't' and then being ignored. The vibe by which Kale visibly deflates is that of a school bully whose demands for lunch money as well as their backing intimidation have both gone unheeded. "Well then!" he says, trying to rally. "If that is your answer..." He stows his sword adjusts his stance, wrapping both feet/ankles around the tree branches for as much stability as that can muster, and starts shaping a spell with his hands. "Then I, Kale Hearthward, East Wind of the Regalia Four, will force an end to this - by my own hands if necessary! Surrender the... soul portrait, and do it posthaste, for I shall regardless pluck it from you - from your hands or from your corpse, I care not!" He breathes out, and the spell in his hands takes visible shape - a complicated knot of howling compacted winds, which he physically grips onto and then hurls out past Samhain, the windball sailing over Samhain's head and hitting the ground - - and then exploding into a forceful blast of wind that blows with hurricane force, pushing at Samhain (as well as anything nearby) to go towards Kale and the tree monster!
Blurr	All of the organics' yelling and posturing is pretty much ignored by Blurr. Souls, portraits, whatever whatever he doesn't have a clue what they're even talking about. What he does know, however, is that here isn't a good place for a fight. Not with all these squishy people around to either bear witness to him in action or to potentially get crushed. Now that the creature is momentarily stunned, he intends to take advantage of the opportunity...except Kale is holding onto it. Ugh, why do Terrans always have to get in the way? "Hey fleshy, you should get off of that unless you wanna go flying." he warns. Though he doesn't give the guy much time to react, and just tries to pluck him off as gently as possible, before attempting to grab Treenta and -throw- it out of the building through one of the large roof skywindows that malls often have.
Samhain	Samhain moves to stare at Blurr. As Bercilak elbows him, he nods. "I see that. How bizarre. A new threat." He goes back to shopping for pencils, replying to Bercilak. "The humans fear us. They reject us. It wouldn't matter if we tried to be kind or not. We are monsters. We are incompatible by nature, even with my attempts to be otherwise. The only guaranteed way to achieve our happy ending is to replace them. Create Fearsframes who'll control the new world. Same thoughts. Same memories. Just letting out all of that negative energy." Desperado leans back against a wall. "See, now he's got it. We gotta create a new society for us. Screw the humans who get in our way!" Samhain is about to grab a pencil set, when suddenly, the wind stirs. He's heavy, but Kale is strong, so he ends up dragged over with effort. Desperado fires his claw at a wall, the grappleclaw hooking him on to not fall off, leaving his commander behind. As Samhain arrives, the 'soul portrait' flutters, and he seems put off with his grunts, despite the fact he has no facial reactions to go off of. "Fine." Instead of handing over the portrait, though, Samhain kicks up the fragments of sign into the air, big chunks of wood, metal, and plastic, and suddenly punches into them with his spare hand, moving to impact them straight into Kale with incredible force, trying to shatter them against him. "What is the problem? That he's threatening humans? Humans do that all the time, and no one says they shouldn't exist. That I hurt a human to make him? It's equivalent exchange - one waste of space for something that pushes our cause forward. That he's not very smart? He'll get there - he just needs growth time." Samhain follows up the sign hit, whether or not it succeeds, with a meaty punch, moving to just knock Kale backwards and put pressure on him. Meanwhile, Blurr throws Treenta Claws into the air. He goes through the skylight...and while the people are momentarily free to escape/loot/whatever, Treenta is freed from the paralysis. And it turns out that being in the air is good for him. Ornaments are blasted down, raining on Blurr and anyone near him! When they impact with something, they explode with red and green smoke, moving to throw people around with concussive force! Desperado is just bawling out laughing, as once the wind dies down, he goes to put a hand on Bercilak's shoulder, being too short, and going for the top of his back. "See? Shouldn't you be scolding them? You got him to stand down, yet, now they're riling everyone up. Heck, getting Shaw into the fight's a terrible idea."
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak is near Samhain. He is, accordingly, bowled over, moments after handing off an unjustifiably expensive gaming console, thrown bodily back towards Kale, landing with an audible thud and rolling towards him. The green biker grunts, getting to his feet. "Thou art constaunt as a wal, 'Kale Hearthward,'" he says, a confident smirk on his face as he rolls his neck with an audible pop. He admires stubbornness. The shattering of the sky window above and the rain of glass shards bother him not, the tall, muscled, mohawked mass of green standing resolute. "So als am I." Hooking his thumbs through the belt loops of his fatigues, he grins, and cries: "IHIWEN!" In moments, his body is encased in armor of tough synthetic weave and space-age green alloys, a massive green harness with pauldrons forming over the already thick chestplate of the armor. A horned helmet with a T-shaped black visor conceals his face, and to dramatically complete the ensemble, there springs from his back a cape of wild winter grasses and hardy flowers, petals occasionally shorn by the last few shards of glass, only to regrow near-instantly. He extends one arm, into which there is formed from thin air a ridiculously huge battle-axe, easily as tall as the knight himself, with a head sporting a concave pose. Looking over his shoulder at Desperado, as the fragmentary attack flies towards Kale, he chuckles, his voice modulated by the helmet's internals. "This didst I awene. Forthy..." He slams the axe into the ground. From it, there springs a sapling. In the space of seconds it's a full grown tree. Seconds more, and it bends, rises, extends, until it's so wide that even Blurr could use it as a bridge to climb up and out of the mall, there to fight freely away from the danger of harming innocents. "AL THOU WHO LEST IFIGHTE, CONVEIEN THEE UP THITHER TREE!" His baritone bellow draws attention, if 'giant tree bridge' wasn't already eye-catching enough. "Samhain, I and thee shalt convers mo an other time--yet settled not is the matere." He has more to say on the virtue of making friends the old fashioned way, but now isn't the time. The tree, as it grows, spreads its leaves outwards, attempting to block the barrage of ornaments and push the Fearsframe onto the roof.
Kale Hearthward	"Wha - hey! Put me down! I'm not one of those Christmas ornaments!" The whole thing about a car turning into a robot goes uncommented on, as one of those things Kale hasn't realized doesn't happen day to day. "What is the problem - the problem is that it's not yours to decide whose is the waste of space, nor yours to make the so called equivalent exchange!" he yells as he squirms out of Blurr's grasp. He had a perfectly good perch on the giant tree (pun not intended) and now he's back on the ground. This isn't ideal. When Samhain punches the pieces of debris at him, the contingency spell Kale set up fires off - a tight blast of wind, swirling around him, pushing the debris harmlessly off course where it hits the floor or walls. The swordsman-caster looks smug - for a moment, and only for a moment, because the swirling winds deflect thrown signs, they do absolutely nothing to deflect thrown hands (that is, punches). "H-ooof!" He staggers back. Of his virtues, sturdiness is not one. He can already feel the bruise forming beneath his vest. "I can see, though, that words cannot convince you - that you are set on this absurd path, with no intention of going back no matter how earnestly one might call to your sense and sensibilities and common sense!" he declares, squaring up and trying to avoid how much his chest hurts. "And where words fail - swords will bridge the gap!" He quickdraws one of his swords - the one on the left, the one he didn't have out before. "And to set you on the right way by force, I must close off your path - figuratively and literally both, with a barrier of blades! Behold, Breath Weapon Gobo, and be humbled by its correction!" And then he brings the handle up to his lips (well, beak) and blows air. The way he's holding it, it looks almost like a flute - and indeed, there's a brief whistling noise, as air blows into a small vent in the handle of the sword. And with that, he takes off, ducking and dodging to Samhain's right - and as he moves, the tip of the sword leaves a sort of solid afterimage in the air - a continuous trail of steel-gray afterimage that lingers, and if tested, proves to be every bit as sharp as the real blade! "And when you cannot advance down your wrong path, you'll have no choice but to see the right one!" Literally, Kale's attempting to box Samhain in with the trail of blades as he moves around the other combatant!
Blurr	The smoke doesn't seem to bother Blurr much, though he reverses his ventilation fans and cranks them up a notch for a few seconds, blowing as much of the weird smoke away as he can. He does try to dodge the explosive ornaments, but there's not much room down there to move. Which is why he was trying to kick Santa Tree out of the mall. Some of them explode against his armor, but by Cybertronian standards they are pretty small so they don't do too much damage. By the time he's done that, a giant tree has suddenly sprung up in the middle of the building. Well isn't that convenient? He was going to just jump out of the window after the monstrosity, but that tree does make his life a bit easier. So he climbs up that giant trunk and out onto the roof, immediately searching for that other tree thing. The hostile one, that is.
Samhain	Bercilak ihiwens up, and then strikes the earth. As the axe goes down and creates a tree, it throws up the Fearsframe, onto the roof. The Fearsframe's ornaments shake the tree, but don't destroy it, instead raining pine and bark down, non-lethally threatening but still an annoying cloud onto Samhain and Kale's fight. Speaking of fight, Samhain cracks his knuckles after the first hit, but Kale quickdraws, whistles, and then creates the box of swords. Samhain touches one, slicing into his finger. Kale is moving around, so... Samhain takes a step forward, blade slicing into him, and moves to swing out. Mid swing, as his arm is sawed up, a sledgehammer appears in hand, moving to both knock the swords away and to sweep into Kale. A follow-up is the hammer being pulled back, and then thrusted straight into Kale, who is hopefully done moving if he was hit. "The world isn't as black and white as you make it to be. Not everything can be fit into little boxes." Black blood oozes from his wounds, though they're shallow - his skin is super tough! Blurr travels to the roof. The garlands swing out as whips, moving to shred into him with razor-sharp pines, as a huge ornament is coming into shape. It's the size of a boulder, and is probably stronger than all the little ones combined!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	If Samhain and Kale continue their fight here... well, there probably aren't that many people still here. But there's a lot of nice stuff waiting to be 'gifted' that might get ruined. That's just wasteful. Bercilak had said that he, too, was stubborn. Now he demonstrates it. "The 'righte path' loten up thither tree, bicche!" Honestly--turning down a rooftop brawl? "Lanhure the golem carte hath taste," he says, appreciative that at least someone made use of it. He steps between the two of them, gladly intercepting attacks made by either of them. Kale's wall of razor-sharp swords is walked through, several of them pushed aside by his bulky plated armor, yet not without cutting deep gorges into the material. But the spaces between the armor, those aren't as tough. Blood weeps from the wounds he suffers--lingers on the afterimages of the Breath Weapon--but though such a movement should have cut him to ribbons, he stands firmly. His free hand grabs the bird-man by the collar of his cloth armor. As a result of stepping between the two of them, he is struck in the side by the tail end of Samhain's blow, the knight's armor dented from the force of it, slowly mending itself. Choking up on the grip of his axe, he catches Samhain's leg between the beard and the haft. In one turn, he chucks them both, one after the other, displaying a measure of his strength as he sends them both flying up the tree. "Whanne-so that I bisaie som-thing, I imene that shit!"
Kale Hearthward	Kale is not used to people simply walking into the blade trail. It's simply not something anyone has done, and is a strategy he has not considered. The whole point of an opponent swinging a sword is to avoid the sword being swung, right? If you walk into it, then what's the point? And thus Kale gets hit by a sledgehammer. He's so confident that he's about to entrap his opponent in an inescapable barrier of blades, upon which he'll patiently and mercifully explain why Kale is wrong and Samhain is right, upon which Samhain will realize the error of his ways, pay to fix the mall, pay restitution to anyone who's gotten hurt or killed, and submit to a court of the land in order to be judged and serve out whatever punishment they see fit. Kale is very confident and very certain in this chain of events happening. It doesn't happen. Instead, sledgehammer. "OOOF!" He staggers back - and indeed, he's stopped dancing around Samhain as he processes what just happened - did Samhain really walk into the blade trail? - and he's only saved from Samhain's follow-up finishing move by Bercilak's timely skyward intervention. "What - oh! We're in the air!" he realizes, stating the obvious as he goes upwards. "Then... Breath Weapon Tabtrack!" He blows a quick puff of air into a vent on his left gauntlet - little more than blowing out the candle on a birthday cake - and his jet boots fire to life. "Then - if you won't accept my guidance, then you shall fall!" He shapes a quick spell - a brute force spell. A very, very dense knot of air, compressing down by force into a space no bigger than a tennis ball - which he waits until he's got a clear shot at Samhain through the branches, and hurls like a fastball. When the airball impacts - whether that's Samhain or something else - all of the ultra-compressed air explodes outwards, like a grenade!
Blurr	Blurr saw the whips coming just in the nick of time, and somersaults over them. They pass just below his back as he twists through the air, transforming again just before landing wheels down on the roof of the mall. Engines roaring, he drives straight at the Treenta and its big boulder bomb, aiming to send it down into the parking lot. Not at supersonic speed, though, since that would likely collapse the whole building.
Samhain	Bercilak grabs Samhain by the foot, and tosses him into the air. The serial monster just grunts, goes flying, and impacts onto the roof enough to damage it, before he stands up. He relaxes on his hammer for posture, and then is about to swing, when two things happen. One, an airball impacts Samhain, as he doesn't move to dodge. It explodes, knocking him backwards and onto the ground, putting more pressure onto that crack. Two... Blurr knocks the Treenta Claws off the building, where the sheer impact detonates the bomb in mid-air! Treenta is consumed, as the red-and-green explosion rocks through the building. It doesn't collapse it, thankfully, but... The crack in the roof Samhain made breaks open, dropping the massive man into the school supplies store. The 'soul portrait' floats out of his hand, right near Kale, while a star appears from where Treenta Claws was, floating over towards the roof and landing. It must fit in the indent. If they try combining the star to the indent, the mall santa comes out! He's stressed, confused, and has no idea what happened beyond having dreamt it. Samhain and Desperado, meanwhile, are soon gone in the wreckage, having disappeared through portals. And so are a bunch of school supplies. Huh.
Kale Hearthward	Kale swoops down and picks up the photo without landing, and examines it as he hovers in midair a bit above the ground. Then he looks from it over to the indentation. "Well, I have to wonder about if the tree thing was actually alive, but it seems clear to me what the move here is," he says to himself. And with that he flies over and carefully places the photo into the indent, and then sees to getting the actual mall santa to a medic.
Blurr	The explosion sends Blurr flying out and crashing down onto the parking lot, likely smashing several cars. Hopefully those people have multiversal insurance or something. He'd wanted to capture that thing, if just to figure out what it was, but clearly that's not an option any more. Also, the force of the bomb has sent him into stasis lock, so it would appear now that he's just another piece of property that was damaged in this little...confrontation at the mall.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	"Hmph." It's a good thing that he's here to make battles between aspiring heroes and repentant monsters more dramatic. Looking up the length of the tree, he shakes his head, then returns to his work within the mall proper. The battle is mostly over, by this point, but there should still be time before the cops show up to protect private property. Pillaging the food courts and clothing stores to carry as much of each as his considerable might and decent inventory space will allow, he only makes his exit and recalls his bike once he's certain there's enough to brighten a goodly number of spirits on his way back to the Warpgate. "Merri Crist-masse, bicches!" he cries, delivering care packages to every citizen he sees, speeding past astride his hoverbike, spreading cheer all the way back home.
Kale Hearthward	"I wonder what 'bicches' translates to," says Kale, who's too preoccupied to stop Bercilak. "Probably something like 'gentlemen'."