Scene #8234: Oreshnika-3

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	It hasn't been too long yet, so there's still time to kill. Even if NAZCA had gotten to the Ural FOB way too quickly, and even if they couldn't be tracked, and even if they were really, really scary, you'd gotten here, over a thousand kilometers away, by mixture of VTOL and rapid teleportation; there's just no way they can possibly be hot on your heels. Which is good, all things considered. The rushed approach --all haste and pressure and threat and hustle-- hadn't gone well. The best progress you'd made all morning was in slowing down, easing off the death and violence and gore, and hanging out in pictochat. In whatever amount of time you have between now and the full strength of NAZCA's Russian operations team arriving, you have to figure out what to do about 'the Third', who ostensibly never leaves her dusty little pitch black comms outpost turned small home. Oreshnika, or Nika for those inclined now, is in unmistakably high spirits for the time being. As the sun steadily rises up the side of the mountain, she ploughs through the rest of her Tamamo-made stew, gets up to point Rita to the cobwebbed cleaning equipment and trash bags, starts hastily throwing together piles of junk, folding discarded clothes, and putting away boxes, then gets distracted halfway through, disappears into a bathroom to comb her hair and wash her face, then wiggles away into the back to begin rummaging for the rumoured 'coffee and tea', quickly digging through a stockpile of military rations that would last one girl ten more years and stay good for eighty. She makes rapid return trips to the impromptu living room to bring hot water, candy, snacks, vintage sodas since before the Onslaught, and, of course, several video game consoles of a few generations ago. The barracks xbox and the break room gamecube, so to speak. Her TTS program can barely keep up with how fast she insists on explaining every single videogame in the modestly impressive stack. Lilian, having excused herself, is still outside for a short while. She has, at this point, finally unarmoured herself, left in her fur-lined dark red peacoat and heavy gloves, but spent the past fifteen minutes seated at the liminal boundary between grass and snow on the peak, facing the rising sun. Kneeling, eyes closed, surrounded by conveniently local stones, simple ground-lines of salt and blood, and trace embers of her distinctive magic, she breaks up her reverie every few minutes to curse and bite her thumbnail.
Ishirou	Ishirou had helped where he could with moving boxes, getting water, and trying his own cooking skills. He couldn't hold a candle to Tamamo, but he does a few dishes of his own. It's also obvious he takes some inspiration in his dishes from Tamamo. Though not all of it, there are a few others he has been inspired by. Now that Nika was going over the video games, Ishirou was smiling and nodding, listening raptly to every title she explained. Ishirou, being the curious thing that he is also asks a million questions. Sometimes as simple as 'what did that thing do?' to ask about details in some of the plot of the story. He's also sipping one of the sodas brought out of storage. POD is also hanging around, having a handkerchief tied around their 'head' and holding a small duster as they go around dusting various things. "I can't believe I've missed all of these.." a pause, and at the mention of the shooter with the ship, he doesn't ask any questions about that. "Oh, I think I played that game before...I can't think of when though.."
Cantio	If it doesn't involve drawing stereotypically boxy robots, Cantio's actually got a good eye for readably flowy artwork even within a low-res medum like pictochat's. The problem is that she doesn't want to make readably flowy artwork, but she wants to make stereotypically boxy robots that look kind of shitty. At best, they might be charming with how intensely focused she is on drawing them, but only in that way something really shitty and genuine can be rather than something actually good would be. After getting a few of Nika's snacks in her and spending some time showing off how terrible she is at platforming, Cantio takes a mug of warm water before stepping out of the safety hole to get some fresh air in her lilac-purple coat with white fur lining and matching boots. Spotting Lilian still hard at work, she observes her for several long moments before finally approaching her at a casually languid pace while keeping far away from the lines and things being drawn. "Do you want a hand with that?" Cantio chooses her words carefully, knowing full well that Lilian doesn't need her help. Want, though? ... Probably also no, but it couldn't hurt to ask. "Or a drink? You've been out here for a little while now." Her tone is a little awkward, as though Cantio still has some tension left even after relaxing inside with everyone else, but she powers through it regardless. "... Are you okay?"
Trudy Grimm	With Nika on board, Trudy's gotten around her trepidation about helping tidy the girl's space up, though she's regularly asking the girl before committing anything to trash that isn't obviously so-- wrappers, empty packaging, and the like. As the sun starts to rise, though, she's changed tactics and wandered outside. A few minutes later, she comes back in-- flanked by two large, fully armored samurai warriors with arrows sticking out of their armor in various places; and shards of green crystal protruding in other places. These samurai are committed to lifting boxes of sorted items and either putting them away or taking them outside for disposal. What's the point of necromancy if not to make work easier, after all? She had noticed Lilian outside earlier, though with Cantio on the case, she doesn't want to smother her fellow Paladin too much. Instead, she opts to spend time with the Autumnal Angel herself. The witch listens intently as the TTS voice spells out the merits and themes of the girl's video game collection, speaking up in a pause, "You're quite passionate about these kinds of stories, no?" It comes with an apologetic smile, "I'm from a land that has yet to create such things, so I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. Listening to someone who loves it is refreshing, though. Like hearing a storyteller sing the old eddas."
James Bond	Bond, coming from a world where video games are an emerging novelty only recently crossing the rubicon into cultural phenomenon, entertains Nika's excited explanations with the look of a grandparent who understands none of it but appreciates the enthusiasm nonetheless. Earlier, he'd shouted at her, out of fear that she'd be too trusting with the men slowly making their way here. He'd gotten his point across, and made a quiet, awkward apology. In this moment, there isn't any power those men have, in an immediate sense. That makes this experience both familiar, and unfamiliar. Familiar, in the sense that he'd had many such breathers working alone. Unfamiliar in that 'alone' was the operative word. The ration-coffee is accepted with a gracious nod and sipped on chastely. "Thank you for the hospitality," he says. It's certainly not the kind he's accustomed to. The general clutter is far from what he'd prefer for his own home, much less the dimness--but something about seeing Nika so excited to share puts those reservations towards the back of his mind. "I don't just mean the coffee, or the other rations," he clarifies quietly.
Tamamo	Tamamo should probably be doing something about helping people get ready for the inevitable and likely violent and difficult showdown with NAZCA. Instead, she's wholly focused on Nika's explanations of farming/life sims. "Oh, and the relationships between yourself and the villagers can be grown thusly, yes? Will they accept gifts even if there is no occasion...? Once a day seems a little much, no? Ah, I suppose if it is only a flower, one may find space for each, and craft a bouquet that changes by the week. If you give a meal to your neighbor every day, some may see this as too troublesome for a neighborly gesture. Ah, but if it is for the sake of romance, are not grander gestures more welcome?" On the screen, the figure throws a fishing line out into a small stream. "Oh, now... how does one...? Oh, a sign?! Nika, which button do I-- ah, it escaped; my apologies. I suppose I may try again, yes?" Shortly afterward, "Oh, one must see the carpenter to expand one's house, and make enough room for two or three, is it? How interesting. Of course, this does necessitate a difficult choice, of whom to invite. There is only so much time in any given day, after all."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Do some fucking GAMING Arthur literally brought his own gamecube controller. Are you kidding? Is this a joke? Fucking of course Arthur knows mid-aughts-era videogames. His entire world ended in 2009 and he spent six billion years preventing his brain from ascending into divinity by alchemizing and learning to speedrun various combinations of games. There are probably some here that didn't exist in his native world that he still, in some way, mostly recognizes! He's also getting into that vintage soda. This, he's also great at. By condensing extremely simple elements out of raw starstuff in his hands, he can produce just enough CO2 at his fingertips to revitalize an ancient bottle of treasured, highly valuable Mountain Dew: Code Silver 'Hotspital Mass Shooting' Gamer Fuel. Until the heavy talks start, that's his holding pattern. Though, as he said before, he plans to make schemes to fix this NAZCA situation. When he gets through soda bottles, he places them as tactical pieces representing entities of note. He's dry-erase-marked them with caricatures of everyone involved, matched to an appropriate flavor: - A caricature of Ishirou is marked on a can of The Little Energy Drink That Could. - Cantio is inscribed on a can of Nutz & Salt Neuro-Energy trail mix. - Tamamo's fox ears are prominent on a can of untranslatable japanese sweet tea. - He's scrawled Trudy and a variety of skulls on black can of Cryptid Energy. - Rita's cute face is on a bottle of harmlessly sweet caffeine-free juice. - James Bond's face has been scribbled on a bottled shot of intense black coffee. - Petra's face is marked on a "Little Princess Extra-Mild flavor" upside-down ramen cup. - Lilian's smirk is on a deeply aged bottle of red wine found somewhere truly deep in the barracks. - Oreshnika's face is on a hidden, discontinued Four Loko, once banished and now returned. - And Arthur's smug fingerguns and wink are on a classic Gamer Fuel bottle. These pieces, he intends, will be the visual representation of the scheme to defend this place against the NAZCA incursion and any other violent intrusions. Like a tactician's map, he's laid them out over an upsized version of what appears to be, quite literally, a diagram of Earth's biomes from a textbook, which cost most of the remaining ink from the barracks printer.
Rita Ma	Rita savors the stew with small bites and marveling expressions, as if it were a gourmet treat and not a well-made hearty meal. But then, for her, it is a delicacy. The sheepishly grateful glances she gives for it are two-thirds directed at Tamamo, one-third directed at Lilian. Once that's set aside, she does take advantage of those garbage bags and starts again on tidying up on earnest. At one point she vanishes around a corner with a broom, and when she's returned she's wearing a cute little maid outfit without comment, which circumstances may have given her the impression is totally normal for such work. When they cross paths in a hallway, Rita says: "Thanks for letting me do this, Ms. Oreshnika. I really appreciate the chance to help clean up." That's sincere, punctuated with a little smile even if subdued. "It feels really nice to have a tidy living space, I think. You'll see!" And she will. Even if Rita takes a break to lean on the back of the couch and watch Tamamo gaming every now and then, with unsolicited comments about the realism of the fishing minigame, the work is going pretty briskly. Rita is simply a very busy bee.
Petra Soroka	As the games start getting brought out, Petra makes an excited squeak as she has a realization. "Oh! There's no wifi here, is there? I could move the Kana closer, set up a hot spot, and then we could do co-op stuff with the DS's!" Petra scurries to her feet, predictably leaving her empty stew bowl for the others who are helping clean up, and heads out to move the Kana up to the plateau. When she hops inside the cockpit and looks around at the mess inside, her lips twist into an annoyed pout. She feels bitter, thinking about how everyone begged to clean up Oreshnika's mess, like doing that makes them better people, but just earlier in the day they all mocked Petra for having an untidy cockpit. It's absolutely fucking unfair. Stewing in these thoughts, Petra flops down in the pilot's seat and gnaws on the knuckle of her index finger, trying to calm her irritated heart rate. She knows she can't have a repeat of her tantrum earlier, or no one will take her seriously again. And... she doesn't feel comfortable holding on to that anger after seeing how Oreshnika's face lit up as she relaxed around the group. A bit later, there's a dull roaring sound from outside, still much quieter than usual because of Tamamo's runes, as the Kana sets down near the outpost. A notification for a new network called TTMK-EKNSH-04 pops up on the currently active devices, quickly being renamed to GAMER NET :3. The hatch hisses open, and Petra clambers out, carrying two entire six-packs of different sodas, handfuls of snacks stuffed in her pockets, and barely balancing extra controllers and various games in her arms. She glances at the gathered people outside, lingering on Lilian, then scurries back into the outpost. Dumping her gamer supplies on the ground, she sits down with a thud and admires the console spread. Then frowns when she notices the makeshift battlemap. "Hey, Nika! Brought some snacks and stuff, some games that I didn't know if you had. If anything looks cool just lemme know!" She's trying so hard. She's just a girl. "...Hey, why am I the only one that isn't a drink? Why... that, specifically?" It's lost on her that Cantio is also not a drink.
Lilian Rook	Nika clearly cannot bother herself to judge Ishirou's domestic merits against Tamamo's. Dishes are dishes, and the act of cleaning them and putting cooked food on them is a sort of lost magic that she appreciates with distant, uneasy awe, like watching slam their own dislocated shoulder back into place. She entertains the first round (mainly Cantio) by trying a four player version of level-creator platformer (everything is dated 2035 at the latest) which is actually abysmal with multiple players, but seems to find unbelievable amusement in jumping on people's heads by accident, being jumped on in turn, and then figuring out how to cheese levels via bouncing off other players as physics objects. Once Cantio leaves, Nika begins animatedly explaining the concept of an FPS game with aliens and energy shields and all the levels she made in the creator, pauses to look at Ishirou and Bond, and then smoothly swaps it out for something about furry animals with space ships and giant robots. She responds, enigmatically (as can be inferred from freemium TTS software) "I should thank you too. Even if it's weird, because you asked for the help, I really like you being here." and looks over Tamamo's shoulder on the second console warmly. Dovetailing scatterbrained into "I really like that it's every day. I know it's not realistic, but that's on purpose. Real people are so complicated and hard to guess what they want because the world is big and complicated and making them want things. If the world is small and you can figure it out, then you can find out what makes people happy, and be sure to do it. I think it would be great if you could do something nice for someone every day." Then she turns back to the two boys. "It's like back when everyone used to be home all the time. I forgot how good it was." Of course, once she sees Rita in a maid outfit, she goes completely insane, and immediately locates some sort of truly high budget otome trash title from the pile and hastily explaining her favourite character, fumbling to explain why she likes the maid character more than the heroine's rivla. Trudy's comment that she comes from 'a place that hasn't invented videogames yet' gets an especially wide-eyed stare from Nika, whereupon she innocently types: "Wow. Are you from a religious commune? I think that's what it's called." The earnestness bleeding from every synthesized word evokes an uncomfortable level of obliviousness with the entire 'Unification' thing. A half hour of a specific multi-franchise Nintendo platform fighter passes with her and Arthur. Nika is so painfully obvious as that one kid who played endlessly with level 9 CPUs and dreamed about entering a tournament for too long, and struggles at first to deal with a human opponent. One would imagine she plays the pink princess. One would be wrong once she picks the big doofy monster heavy and spikes Arthur under the stage in the filthiest way imaginable twenty minutes later. Petra returns a new woman. She left Nika's field of vision for long enough for her to stop being mad and then came back with cases of new soda and snack, and so of course Nika is on her like she's her Cool Cousin. It's only Petra's complaining that gets her to notice the heap of bottles stacked up by Arthur and their funny little cartoon depictions, whereupon she finally asks him what he plans to do with them, swapping her DS off pictochat and connecting it to the wi-fi to invite herself to Tamamo's town.
Lilian Rook	Outside, Lilian holds a finger up to silence Cantio for a few seconds, heaves a frustrated sigh, and stands to start dusting the snow from her knees. "Don't bother." she says, and then rethinks her tone as she heads to the door. "It's not something that benefits from more people." Lilian rephrases. "I'm fine. For now. I thought I'd take a few minutes to perform a divination or two and sort out our options for when NAZCA gets here, but . . ." Her eyes wander as she holds the door open for the samurai. "I'm not Blueberry Princess; I can't tell you every single permutation of everything that could ever happen. I just know exactly how to get through all the steps to the goal. And right now, all the choices that keep coming up with a reasonable probability of success involve grabbing a few people and getting out of here while we can." "How much do you want to fight them again, Cantio? Be honest. Twice as many at once, who know about us, our abilities, where we are, have had time to prepare, and only need to extract one person to ruin everything. With all these civilians in the way, too. Does that feel like . . . business as usual to you? Can you choose tha tbattle with the same confidence as always?"
Trudy Grimm	> "Are you from a religious commune? I think that's what it's called." Trudy stares, taking a second to truly process that, then bursts out laughing. She fully leans back in her seat, holding her middle in a righteous guffaw for half a minute. It only ends when she's clearly starting to gasp for breath, reigning herself in with a sigh and wiping tears from her eyes. "Oh, gosh, Nika that was hilarious..!" Still chuckling, she's getting a grip on herself, "A creature like me in a commune? I'd burst into flames in an instant..!" Raising a hand, she waves it back and forth, "No, no. The place I came from is from an older time. Though I'm quite fond of electricity and your devices--" From her shadow, she produces a crystal sphere about the size of a softball, tinged green on the edges where the refraction is strongest, "Where I'm from, we still use these to communicate or see things. I'm not kidding when I call myself a witch." The orb is rolled from one hand to the other, then dropped uncerimoniously back into her shadow whence it came. She plants her hands on either side of her legs, kicking her feet childishly when Lilian re-enters after her samurai step outside carrying trash, "Oh, miss Rook, welcome back. I'm still at a bit of a loss as to what the plan is. Standing and fighting seems like the less wise option, though I'm not sure if we'll have much choice in the matter."
Ishirou	Ishirou looks over Tamamo's shoulder, "Oh I think it's mostly about being an extrapolation. Programming real relationships into a game would be too complicated. Also, I don't think ONE would fit into one single game...so it's sort of like simplifying the process for gameplay purposes. I think..." he does nod once to Nika, "They can be...but I also think it's worth it. Learning about how to be human has been a good experience for me!" Ishirou smiles sheepishly when she pauses, "To be fair, they're not aliens, but rather they come out of the earth. Like uh...from whatever the earth spirit is like. Don't worry about it." "Well, you know we can always come back to hang out, or you can come with us. Whatever is comfortable for you," He suggests, though more innocently than thinking of the implications for the people here. Ishirou spends so much time with Nika letting her bounce off her head to get to all sorts of weird locations, timing jumps with her. He's amused about the physics jank as she might be. When Petra comes back with the soda and the network, he smiles at her nodding once. Petra's getting it! You go, girl! During the platform fighter, he picks the tall lanky hero guy. He proceeds to spend it standing at the edge of platforms and jumping over people who try and engage with him, aiming to try and tap them off the platform. Ishirou engages with a bit of light trolling until Nika probably comes at him from below and knocks him to his death.
Cantio	Despite training in this sort of game against her sister so many times, Cantio's the first to die every single time in that platformer game. Somehow, she always ends up on the bottom of the pile of people jumping on her head. Funny that. At least she doesn't have to worry about that when she's coming out to speak with Lilian. At first, though, her gut reaction is to just head right back in. Powering through that, however, bears fruit when Lilian clarifies herself, even getting a slow nod from Cantio in understanding rather than letting that initial gut punch set the tone. "That's not a bad plan, honestly. Considering the circumstances, we'd be cutting our losses and ensuring the safety of everyone-" She pauses, then sighs and adds. "-important. It'd just be at the cost of everyone else that's left behind." "Frankly...? I'd rather not at all. They've demonstrated a clear tactical advantage in knowing how to fight against Elites even with what should otherwise be a pretty huge power gap. They've got more intel on us now than they did before, and now they even know for a fact that you're involved. All things considered, it's a terrible idea to fight them again when they could have all sorts of plans in place for you specifically." She pauses again to run a hand through her hair, tugging it upwards lightly to relieve a bit of the tension starting to build up. "And from a personal perspective... It's not anywhere near business as usual for me. I mean, usually I'm fighting for something I have some personal stake in, or something to gain from it, but this... Isn't." One more pause, and then she shakes her head. "Well... Not immediately. I mean, you know that I know what you're capable of. As much as you don't like... Dislike me...?" She lets that hang a bit, mostly to see if Lilian corrects her somewhere. There's still hope yet! "... I don't think you'd be the type to go after my people back home, either. I can't trust them to do the same, so!" Cantio claps her hands together, then smiles. It's awkward, but it's actually genuine. "Until we pull out, I'll be stuck here helping you out with this even if it means fighting them again. I think escaping is still the right call, though."
Tamamo	Tamamo has yet to even notice Arthur's strategy board, though she will, later. Instead, she's focused on the farming game, responding to Rita's fishing comments with, "A net or spear would be easier, no? I am less accustomed to these baited lines, I think. Oh, but a net would not be so fun, I suppose. Perhaps a game should be a bit unrealistic." She takes a little break from that to try the platform fighter, in which she selects the most knight-like character with the longest cape. It's not that her reflexes are terrible that makes her awful at the game. Mostly, it's her inability to judge how far a specific move should reach, and attack the moment things enter range. "I would think he could strain himself a little more," she comments after a whiff, as if trying harder should allow her to extend the reach of her knight's sword. It's simultaneously clear that she's never played something like this. Returning to farming in time for Summer to begin and Nika to join her town, Tamamo says, "Oh, and so, this game... it can be played like this? Ah, is this that thing, an 'online game'? Could it be played from across a greater distance? That would be an entertaining thought, no? If one could view this sleepy little village as something that exists across space, as close by as the next room, no matter the island upon which you dwell." She goes on to show off every little thing she's done in the short time she's been playing, talking about what she's learned of the villagers as if Nika didn't already know from having played it, herself. "Though it is rarely so easy to figure out just what others truly want, if one makes an effort to be nice to them every day, will that not shine through? One can see such effort, after all, and value it on its own merits, even if the result was not precisely that for which one wished. If I provide one with sugar cookies baked by my own hands, when they truly wished for chocolate, will they dislike me for what I have done, or will they view me as one who cares, and can be relied upon to continue? Surely, I must be such a person, or else, I would not have given them my time. It is better, of course, that I should listen to their desires, as well. One must sometimes listen carefully, to know these things. The receiver of a gift may be reluctant to give an explanation that suggests ingratitude."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Express your frustrations in a way that acknowledges your flaws "Oh buuuuuuuuullshiiiiiiiiiit, NIKA COME ON! I was literally AIRDODGING! Fuckin' HOW. Is this PRE-PATCH? God dammit!" >Arthur: Why is Petra not a drink? "On account of I've hung out with you, what, how many hours? I know you get BOILED and SLURPED, you don't get DRUNK. Anyway, NOT IMPORTANT." He gestures to the war-table. "What's IMPORTANT is the SCHEMES." >Arthur: What do you plan to do with these things? Arthur fully unrolls the big printout, places all of his pieces around. "TOLD YOU motherfuckers we gettin' TACTICAL up in this bitch." He plants his palms firmly on the map. "Thing is, either we're NOT MAKING IT OUT GATE-WISE, on account of the WARDS they hit me with, or we're MAKING IT OUT, and we're leaving this COZY-ASS LITTLE SPOT to get its ass WAR-CRIMED. Either way, NO RUNNING, just FIGHTING, for real yo. Maybe we can BRING IN BACKUP but we gotta STOP 'EM HERE." He plants Oreshnika's little can in the middle of the map. "We got SWARMS, we got WARDS, we got FUNKY-ASS MAGICS, we got HEAVY HITTING, but we gotta take on EVERYTHING FROM EVERY DIRECTION, guns on LAND AND AIR. Holla at'cha boy if YOU got PLOTS AND PLANS but ya boy ARTHUR gonna SCHEME THIS SHIT hard if you got nothing." He marks out the approximate shape of the territory of the little settlement. "NUMBER ONE QUESTION FOR ME is, you got this HELLA MULTIBIOME ECOSYSTEM out here keeping the place running. You think maybe it'll stay together if I juice this whole-ass place with Gate magic, warp it somewhere they won't trash it? We gotta get a long-ass solution, you know."
James Bond	Bond comments on the farming sim. "It may not be as unrealistic as you think," he says. "You can think of things like the map I keep seeing Tamamo bring up," continues Bond. "Zoomed-out. But even people who think of things that way for a living go home to world like this one," he says, gesturing to Tamamo's screen. "Little worlds, with a few people in them, that aren't so complicated. What's complicated is..." He frowns, given over to thought as to how to explain it. "The excuses, and justifications, and reasons people make up, as to why that bigger, more zoomed out world should be more important than the little one around them. Why it should be allowed, in a sense, to have that control over us. It's hard for people to be happy, when they're not allowed to have little worlds like this little town on the screen, I think." Sip. He nods, when she mentions how good it was before--when people were home more often. "See? You understand. I suppose, in a sense, all of us have 'favorite gifts.' Or at least I do. But I noticed, when Tamamo talked to the fellow that owned the shop downtown the day before, his little 'heart' meter was a little less full than today. Life is like that, too. Gestures and gifts are nice, but you don't necessarily need to know the perfect way to show someone you care. Sometimes just being there with them is enough."
Petra Soroka	Petra feels normal about Rita being in a maid outfit. She's so normal about it. She's almost normal enough to look in Rita's direction, or acknowledge that she's there. She is, however, absolutely thriving on being the cool cousin. She indulges all of Oreshnika's ranting with enthusiasm, talking at length about her favorite otome, set in an upper class magical school with the main routes being princes of the kingdom, though at some point she gets off track and rambles about making the main character a maid for the female rival. Petra is also shockingly good at the fighting game, choosing an anthropomorphic fox to play. She gets a bit sweaty, loudly exclaiming about some complex technique she was trying to pull off every time she dies. Her snack consumption ramps up dramatically every time she loses, but she's earnestly congratulatory to Oreshnika when she wins. Petra's completely wrapped up in the gaming, she seems to have forgotten what other reason they would have to be here. She's totally at home sitting on the floor gaming in a messy room that's being cleaned up by other people. "You know, Nika, there's a newer version of this game with like, ten times as many characters. Do you wanna try that out together sometime? I think that'd be a lot of fun." Her voice is casual, assuming off-hand that they're going to be keeping in contact after today, whatever that means. Petra holds her breath briefly in anticipation of Nika's response, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Petra looks derisively at Arthur's battlemap. "Oh, you're doing that nerd shit?" She takes a bite of her pocky, while booting up a Japanese RPG on her modded DS, like someone who isn't a nerd. "...What the fuck does boiled and slurped mean???" Settling down, Petra adds, "Do we think we can fight them all, with Nika's help? It was hard before, but now we're all grouped together, and we took out a few of them."
Lilian Rook	Oreshnika stares at Trudy with hopeful nervousness, her smile wide and her eyes blank with confusion, her whole body scrunched up just trying to believe she's being laughed with instead of laughed at. She really doesn't get what's so funny. "Another time? You time travelled? Are you from the past? Are you a ghost? Are you a spirit? Mother could always tell, but I'm no good at it." She snorts at Petra, nodding in vague agreement with Arthur, just texting back "Slurped and boiled." and then "Zlurped and Boibed.", falling into further permutations if Petra should protest, poking at "Slurmed and Boyned.", "Slipped and Boils.", and "Slurred and Boyed.", before thoughtfully trying that one again with "Slumped and Toiled." Her smile turns a little strained, her eyes downcast, when Ishirou oh-so-innocently mentions further arrangements. The neutrality of synthesized tones and the grace of pausing to type covers up whatever she might have expressed otherwise. "I would really like it if you could come back again some day." Though, she recovers for a time, by way of absolutely beaming approval rays out of every surface once she is able to walk into Tamamo's game world, make her little avatar wave and dance, and hear the bunrei's thoughts on the matter. "Yes! From really far away! That's part of why it's good! No matter what happens, or where you are, or whatever changes, you have your village right there waiting for you. Just whenever you need to be somewhere else for a while." She falls off, temporarily silent, in contemplating the nature of gifts. As a thoughtful tic, she closes her eyes and holds her hands over her ears for the length of time it takes. "That means me too, right?" This causes her to swivel her seat and focus on Bond for a weirdly long time. She has to cover her ears one more time, but thinks to type, if hesitantly, "That's what this is about, isn't it? Why I have to care more about the zoomed out world, than the little one here."
Rita Ma	"I don't think that water's deep enough for a net, Ms. Tamamo," Rita pronounces with professional seriousness. "A spear is usually better, but it's more effort too, right? If you have to do a lot of farming, there's no point in tiring yourself out." There's probably not a fatigue mechanic in the game, but she's taking herself very seriously. Later, when Nika exposes her to the trash otome, Rita looks flattered and awed. "Oh, wow! This looks really cool, Ms. Oreshnika! Can I play it later?" And then, after a moment's thought: "I wonder if Ms. Rook played this game, too. Is that why she likes maids?" ---- The cleaning goes smoothly, but eventually even Rita becomes a little tired from her industriousness. After the fifth or sixth garbage bag, she sits down on the couch next to Tamamo and inspects Arthur's Gamer Tactics Board. "You should make one for the balaur, too," she says firmly. "That's what the big flying thing is called." "... Do you think this is going to turn out okay?" She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, fingers grabbing handfuls of her white apron. "I mean, NAZCA was really awful when we had to fight them last time. But... the village here is counting on us, too, aren't they? Even if they don't know it. If we weren't here, I can't imagine good things would happen to them."
Lilian Rook	Lilian enters on cue with Trudy greeting her, shutting the door politely, so as not to allow the hateful daystar (the one without fluffy tails that Oreshnika hasn't already accidentally called mom) any presence inside. "That's what we need to discuss before nightfall." she says to Trudy, inviting Cantio in before she closes up fully. "That's as close as I think we can cut it. I don't have a dead on prediction, but nothing I can see panning out well is accomplished after dark." Nika rotates to face Lilian as she comes around the corner, tapping away to ask "You were 'asking' too, right?" To which Lilian very thoughtfully contemplates an answer to, enters the room, says "Something like that, y--", glimpses Rita in a maid dress, visibly disassociates on the spot and freezes up like a PTSD case hearing fireworks, and then shakes her head and sidles in up to the table, finishing with "The men from before, of course. So that means . . . you don't have to worry. We have all the way until nightfall to figure this out. Thank you for keeping busy." Oreshnika hesitantly smiles. Continuing with Cantio, Lilian says "I don't mind having you here." by way of noncommittal positivity, and then "And it's true that we can't trust them with anything. We aren't just dealing with men completely bankrupt of humanity and decency. It's much worse." She looks up at Bond. "We're dealing with men fighting over the fate of the world." She sits in next to Arthur, blinking at the tactical map, spying the Ramen cup, sliding her eyes over to Petra, and asking "Did you run out of drin-- No, not the point. I regret to inform you that my good sense --what you'd call 'time aspect' and then a foul word-- concurs with Grimm and Cantio. I can give you the gist of how I'd go about dismantling NAZCA's agents here, if that is to be our primary goal, but, honestly, if they really do have those reinforcements, they'll outnumber us two or three to one this time, and we'll be forced to take them on their terms, rather than catching them blind; and need I remind you that there is no convenient FOB here to place pressure on them?" Oreshnika visibly sighs in relief when Lilian pushes her can slightly and says "I'd rather not place critical combat burden on Nika. Even if you're all very impressed by her power, I'd like to take the opportunity to have you recall and contemplate on the importance of experience." A very polite way of rubbing everyone else's faces in their inadequacies instead of crucifying Oreshnika for reacting to a gore tape. "If we go head to head with them here, there are greater than three fourths odds that one or more of you die." says Lilian, without the slightest pause or ceremony. "And that's only if we abandon the safety of the people living here. Which they will absolutely use against us, because they matter to Nika but not to NAZCA, and they'll resort to anything they can without a second thought." Nika herself swallows hard, looks down, and stares holes into the table rather than possibly say something that might encourage someone to not defend the mountain people. Lilian does look to her when Arthur asks the more salient question. Tap tap tap. Pause. Tap tap. Pause. "Somewhere? Are you going to send everyone away? Where? The cities won't take them anymore. There's no room."
James Bond	"There are times when we're forced to," says Bond, with resignation. "It wasn't always that way. Or if it was," he adds, rising to bring his empty cup to the sink, "It was less... pronounced. This is one of those times. If that world out there were more like the one on the little map there, I think things would be better. That's why I signed on with Ishirou, Trudy, Lilian and Tamamo--to try and make that world a better place. One that asks less of and takes less from the people in it." He washes the cup, then sets it someplace where it can dry. With that done, he looms over Arthur's board. This is a more familiar setting for him, evidenced by his posture, by the look on his face. His expression is the concentration and consideration of someone at work. "We are here," he says to Rita. "I don't know how it will turn out," he admits. There is a nod, given towards Lilian, as both acknowledgement of her point and of Rita's question--a way to summarize, succinctly, what they're up against. "I do know that there are good people here, people who I trust, who will fight to make sure those men don't get their way. I'd take one Rita Ma over a full complement of men like those." Nika's question turns him away from the table, for a moment. "Lowell--" He stops himself, reminded that she isn't a co-worker at some briefing. "Arthur is very good at moving people and things. And the people that we work with have all sorts of places that would have enough room for the people in the village to stay, for as long as they need to be safe from those men."
Ishirou	Ishirou thinks about what he said and Nika's response. "Sure, whatever you're comfortable with Nika. I can always make time to swing by. Hang out or even tell stories about what's going on. I realize I don't get to do much...of this lately." Ishirou sighs, things are turning serious. Well, it'd have to come to this eventually, and he was at least happy for the distraction. Ishirou stares at the map, burning holes into it. "Sending the people here away might be a good option. If we're going about having to deal with NAZCA, the first thing we need to do to shift victory in our favor is to remove every advantage they have. Using the people against us is one..." "Removing their ability to use long-range snipers would be another. We have the advantage here to set up the terrain, so we need to make good use of that." "We also know they're cyborgs, and don't use magic. However, they have countermagic stuff on them. Stuff that seems to eat information...it's not as strong as it is in the American cities, but it's nothing to sneeze at. They're highly resistant to mental attacks, so my ability to mess with them electronically isn't going to be effective." Ishirou sighs and becomes silent. He focuses on the map, the surroundings, and the abilities that people here have. He looks for anything he can use to get an edge on them that he hasn't figured out yet. Letting his analysis factor in as much as his brain can. He does take a moment to look up at Nika. "We're here now, and I'm not about to abandon you or your people." "I don't think any one of us will. So that means we can't die, obviously.." he says, trying to sound up beat.
Rita Ma	Rita, from her spot on the couch to one side of Tamamo, smiles brightly and waves at Lilian as she enters. She completely misinterprets the PTSD expression, of course. "Hi, Ms. Rook! Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want a maid outfit too? I can find you one, you know!" That 'find' means 'weave from active-camo tentacles' is a fact tacitly shared between the two of them. That sunniness doesn't linger in her expression for long, though. She stares at the map, working her face through different stages of unease as Lilian talks. "... there are greater than three fourths odds that one or more of you die." For no particular reason, Rita looks solemnly at Petra and Ishirou. "I'd thought it would be something like that, Ms. Rook. But I still hate to hear someone else say it out loud," she says, slumped forward. "Ms. Oreshnika... there aren't any major Antegent near here, are there? I don't guess there would be."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Oh, you're doing that nerd shit? "Hey! I've NEVER done NERD SHIT in my life!" Arthur pounds a hand onto the map, gesturing at Petra. "What I'm DOING is I'm being a huge KNOW-NOTHING PUNK, so I can get someone who KNOWS SHIT to step in!" When he's asked what 'boiled and slurped' means, he just gestures to Oreshnika's response, grinning and making the light gleam off his teeth in a way that somehow manages to obnoxiously shine directly into Petra's eyes. >Arthur: Make one for the balaur too! Arthur grabs a discarded Ratty Hoodie out of Rita's hands, enchants it with a burst of antigravity, and leaves it floating over the table. No time for stands! >Arthur: Are you going to send everyone away? "Nah." Arthur explains, putting his index finger down on the center of the map, near Nika's piece. "This? All of this? You look outside? The ecosystem is self-contained. This shit ain't even periglacial, for real, yo, it's every biome. They'll burn this place and we straight-up do not have the manpower to cover it. And we aren't evacuating however many hundred dudes, just so they can go be refugees." "Long time ago, way back, I..." He waves a little, vaguely. "I had to do something like this. It wasn't as big, or as violent, and the place was already flying. But I managed to teleport a city out of the way of an apocalypse. I've got more people here who can help me this time. Only way we're saving the people and the place both at once, as far as I can see, is get it out of the way of the steamroller." "Only way I can see this working is if I teleport this whole ecosystem straight off the mountain, to somewhere else." Arthur starts gesturing around the map. "Figure, if I can get some aid from the other magical homies, some backup on calculations, and some defense on some good heavy-duty space-magic pylons, I could teleport a metaphysically self-contained area with a strict-ass defined boundary like this. They don't care so much what's past the biomes, right? At least, not more than staying alive in a spot like this." He gestures plaintively. "Best I got. What'cha think?"
Petra Soroka	Petra groans in mock outrage when Oreshnika takes the cue to start bullying her. "Not you too! What does that mean? I'm not slurped! And you can slurp a drink too!!! Why am I the one who gets slurped??" She can't keep the smile off her face even while she continues acting huffy as Oreshnika distorts it more and more. Petra's wound up enough in the dynamic that she doesn't immediately notice Lilian's return. Once tactical discussion starts, Petra's face quickly drops into a pouty neutral, and she snaps her DS closed. "Three in four odds... and that's with Nika's help, in the best case? So fighting isn't an option at all. She shouldn't have to fight if she doesn't want to." Petra's tone is unusually serious, firmly asserting herself for once. "And it's "us". The village matters to "us", not just Nika. So we're not abandoning them." Petra taps her stylus on her lip, thinking hard. "If we can't teleport the whole village out for whatever reason, what else could we do? Fighting them here had bad odds, you said? Maybe we could split them up, somewhere away from the village? Take them by surprise before they get here? Or...." She doesn't actually have any other ideas.
Tamamo	'...but you don't necessarily need to know the perfect way to show someone you care.' "It is oft better to try and do something less than perfectly, for one may otherwise not try at all. What does it matter if it is not done perfectly?" After hearing Petra's explanations for whatever incomprehensible platforming feat she was attempting, "Except in such competitive cases, but as for delivering your well-wishes and your care to others, it is rarely a competition." Tamamo knows, but does not mention, the circumstances under which love becomes war. '...you have your village right there waiting for you.' "For myself," Tamamo says, after taking a bit to think on it, "it is not the walled garden for which I wish so much as a place that may be shared, as in a shared secret. A secret garden is only better if there are some few, or even just one person, who knows its entrance as well as you know it, no? A place away, yet shared, keeping that connection, the thread binding you to another." In warm, hushed tones, "I would be pleased to share such a secret with you, Nika." 'That's what this is about, isn't it? Why I have to care more about the zoomed out world, than the little one here.' Again, Tamamo takes a bit to think about it before answering, tilting her head, gaze slowly sliding upward, raising one hand to rest two fingers to her chin. "It is unfair, I think, how those distant lands care so much about you, yet without sign of caring for your own perspective. Their interest in you is forceful, by no fault of your own. It was mere happenstance, a fate of no one's making, but this result remains, that the greater world cannot be forever ignored. Were it within my power, I would wish to allow you the choice to remain as you are, with the boundaries of your world set as you wsih them, though I would encourage, perhaps, just a bit more activity than that with which you are presently comfortable." She hastens to add, "I do only mean encouragement, mind you. I sought you for the simple reason of friendship, in seeing a hint of those threads that already existed between yourself and Lilian -- and with two others, though some mystery in this matter remains. Those truly unfortunate circumstances that force us to action, the interests of nations, came about afterward, and independent of my own desires." She speaks of it as some unforeseen and unfortunate burden, something she simply has to deal with, now that it's happened, though it's obviously unfair and she clearly wishes she could just tell them all to go away. Again coming conspiratorially close, Tamamo quietly tells Oreshnika, "She tries very, very hard to do many important things, and so, it becomes more difficult, at times, for her to be honest. With this in mind, please be kind to Lilian." 'If you have to do a lot of farming, there's no point in tiring yourself out.' "I do believe you are correct, Ms. Rita. The baited lines are not quite so easy as laying traps, yet they are less strenuous, I see. Plowing and planting, removing weeds, clearing debris after storms, brushing and feeding animals, carrying water, these things all take more than time."
Trudy Grimm	Raising a hand, Trudy taps down Nika's concerns and questions gently, "No, no, I'm no time traveler and I am quite alive, last I checked." Gently, she explains, "There are other worlds connected to this one. It's..." Eyes closing, the witch shrugs, "Complicated. Needless to say I am not from this world. Most of us aren't. That's why you might see us somewhat strangely." > "There are greater than three-fourths odds that one or more of you die." "Then we conspire how to turn the odds," Trudy comments lightly. Leaning forward, she reaches past the snacks to some fruits, selecting for herself an apple and leaning back into her seat. She doesn't take a bite out of it, but instead, holds it up to inspect it. "We hit them with something they don't see coming. Or more accurately. Make them walk through a trap." As she turns the apple, perched on her fingertips, the skin loses its luster. Parches. Wrinkles. "Something they've never seen before." Patches of the apple's shriveled skin turn black until, soon, the entire fruit is a wretched thing. She extends her hand, dropping it into one of the garbage bags. It bursts like a pustule of slimey rot and, briefly, releases the ghostly apparition of Eiwaz, the Death Rune. One of her Samurai helpers swiftly closes the bag up and carries it out before the smell can truly escape. "I can't guarantee it'll drop all of them, but if they're immune to pain..." Trudy gestures, her fingers uncurling, "I can't help but wonder how long any who fall into this curse would last as their body rots around them." The witch lowers her hand, "In fact, if we relocate the village and miss Nika here-- completely rob them of their objective before they even realize it's gone, it'd be quite delightful to watch them stumble around, slowly crumbling to bits while searching with such futility." Her encounter with NAZCA-1 has made her rather vindictive against these people.
Tamamo	'Where? The cities won't take them anymore.' 'Only way I can see this working is if I teleport this whole ecosystem straight off the mountain, to somewhere else.' Tamamo is about to say something, and pauses, switching tracks to say, "You would have my support in this, of course, Mr. Lowell." Though she doesn't switch names even after hearing Bond, it's just different, for her. Pay it less mind. Not 'no mind.' Names have a purpose. "Such a feat would be beyond my own ability, but if I only need supply you with assistance in forming the boundaries, empowering your own magic, and shielding us from whimsical tragedy, such is not difficult, with time and preparation. And oh, we do have time enough, I think." On the alternative, she frowns, "I would rather not like to so risk our deaths, even were we assured victory with sacrifice." Remembering how the last fight went, "Their work seems particularly suited to thwarting my preferred craft. What I orderly create shall be warped into useless and chaotic forms. I have other means, but not ones well-suited to handling armies in swift fashion." Especially if they're resistant to mental control.
Ishirou	Ishirou doesn't say anything about Rita or Lilian's comment, instead just lowering his eyes and looking at the map. It's obvious to anyone he's trying not to let it bother or discourage him but...it obviously does. He's just trying to get anything useful now. Do anything useful now. He'll burn a hole in this map with his eyes if he has to.
Cantio	Stepping inside with Lilian, Cantio breathes a sigh of relief at coming back in from the cold. Her mug of water might be a little icy now, but she still chugs it down regardless. She does choke briefly when Lilian shows some measure of positivity at her existence, but the surprise fades before long so as to let herself focus on the actual situation at hand instead of what she should be feeling from that status update. Also, the cups and cans indicating each person here. Ishirou's and Petra's indicators especially get a head-turned snicker from Cantio, although her own can of trail mix just has her craving trail mix now. "Utilizing Nika's abilities can't be a last resort, but I agree that we shouldn't force her to be the backbone of any plan we have. Maybe..." She looks towards Nika with a reassuring smile, although it's not her best by far considering the gravity of the situation. "Perhaps... A supporting role? Something where you can aid us by overseeing the battle and act at your own discretion. Or would you rather have someone around to help you organize and strategize during it?" The topic of the locals' safety, meanwhile, has Cantio trying to work things out mentally. "We can't afford to let them capture any of us, either, so even one hole in our defenses would be disastrous. And with more..." Noticing Nika's expression, Cantio clears her throat before looking over at Arthur as the idea of moving the entire village comes up. "If it's time and defenses you need, then I might be able to help with that side of things. We'll still need something more serious than just us on the task, though, and..." Looking from person to person, Cantio's gaze eventually falls on Bond and Rita. "It could be really risky bringing them in, but if we can locate one and draw it closer... It might help divert their attention. Otherwise..." She hesitates, almost as though she doesn't want to suggest what she does next. "Rita. Mister Bond. While I draw their attention, would you two be able to eliminate the agents? I'm..." Cantio inhales, then exhales slowly, as though she can't believe she's saying these things. "I can survive holding their attention in a fight better than most everyone here, I'd bet. While I fly around and make a target of myself, perhaps you could pick them off with Nika isolating them... Somehow?"
Lilian Rook	Nika studies Trudy intently as she tries to make sense of Multiverse Theory in simple. She has the painfully earnest look of someone who is simply used to not understanding obvious things at first, and puzzling through it on her own. "So you're from somewhere else on the tree. Okay." Somehow, there's an obvious sense she doesn't mean the one Trudy is used to, but it's probably immaterial to split hairs over it by now. She's already focused on Tamamo again anyways. "Yes! I wasn't sure I'd ever get to share it with anybody, but it's so nice. Even just having one more person is so different. It takes--" She hits pause, taps back, and revises the sentence. "It takes two people to agree that something is real. If you don't share it, then it never existed. You can only keep it alive by offering yourself up inside." And yet, the topic must move. Oreshnika's face falls. She trudges back to the sofa. Withdraws under her covers. Pulls the glowing screen up to her face again so she doesn't have to look at the sympathy-tainted expressions of those relying on her. "Yeah. There's lots of times people are forced to. And it's always people who never did anything wrong, too." she types back to Bond. "I understand. It's just my time to have to care about big things over my things again." she says to Tamamo. "There's no point getting mad when bad things happen. Getting sad, or saying it's unfair, doesn't make the bad things stop. You just have to deal with it. I know by now." She seems relieved by Bond's backup of Arthur's skills, but only barely. She goes quiet again, for Tamamo's conspiracy-sake, looks over to Lilian, stares at the woman's troubled expression leaning over the table, and then glances back to Tamamo. A sentence is deleted and replaced. "Teleport. Okay. I know what that is." she types, though probably only from videogames (then again, that may be appropriate). "How far? For how long? Can you bring them back?" Simultaneously, Lilian is brushing off Rita's offer as politely (and hurriedly) as possible, saying "Ah, no thank you. I appreciate it, but I'd just have to change right back out of it anyways. And you're doing such a good job, I'd hate to be deprived of watching you look cute while doing it." Her Uncanny Reflexes and socially Impervious nature having reduced the threat of dressup to an ice blue percentage number, Lilian's eyes go to where Rita is looking, and responds to Petra. "It's an option. An ordinary commander would look at this situation as a force advantage either way. They'd be glad to sacrifice a couple of you to secure the asset here. NAZCA is thinking about it the same way, from the other end; how they can get what they want with acceptable losses." Why she insists that nobody die, vis a vis, is aggravatingly left unstated. She just glides on to Ishirou and Trudy. "If they have one device per agent, even assuming they're non-reusable, that leaves us in a poor position in terms of disparity of resources. They appear to designed to target and disjoint underpinnings of sacred geometry. Runes, circles, arrays, perfect words; all the sorts of things Tamamo, Grimm and I prefer. Your programs, as well. But we do have means aside from those. We'll have to exhaust or prohibit those if we hope to use any arcane trump card on them. Removing their ability to sharpshoot us is an absolute must, of course. Ishirou especially is liable to be picked off, followed by Cantio, by a savvy tactician. I don't know why they have standing orders not to kill Tamamo, but I'm inclined to believe it. Only Grimm and Rita can get us a feasible temporary barricade from their firepower. The issue is finding somewhere on a mountain that isn't a shooting range."
Lilian Rook	"Preempting them is about the only viable strategy with what we have. But they already sent out a rendezvous order. They'll be moving as one unit and covering each other just as a matter of crossing Antegent territory. We won't get a clean drop on them, and I we can't split them up without luring them into something prepared ahead of time, but all of our field specialists rely on sacred design to do so. I suspect even Lowell's . . . spirographs?" Lilian sighs and rubs her temples at Cantio's unfortunately valid input. "We're committing to much more difficult terms of victory than them. It's true. Furthermore, we're working with how much we can recover by tonight, and the longer we wait, the closer they get, and the less space we have to intercept them. It's going to be a matter of attrition on each other, where we can't afford to lose much of anything, and they're all prepared to die for it, unless . . ." Lilian glances to Nika. Then she glances over to the Look that Tamamo and Arthur are sharing. Comprehension. "Oh. You mean the place we-- We're putting them together? Alright, that's--" She looks over to Oreshnika, who sits bolt upright. "Is it alright by you if I ask to rely on your abilities to give us a state of affairs that won't rely on magic? If all of this goes well, we need only wait a little while, and this will all solve itself. We won't have to kill all of the bad guys, and they can't come back here and hurt anyone." Oreshnika touch-types quickly, but nervously. "Okay. I can try. I won't ask if you can't tell me. But before you go, we have to get my brother. We can't leave him behind. It's important." That much doesn't seem to surprise Lilian as much as it should. Not as much as when Nika looks to Rita with a measure of relief, at being directly asked a question she knows the answer to. "I keep them away, mostly. But there is the one who is pretty close. Her name is Mat' Prizrakov. Why? Do you need me to talk to her?"
James Bond	>What does it matter if it is not done perfectly? "Exactly," Bond says with a small smile. "But it's hardly a surprise that you'd understand, of all people." The discussion of strategy is heard with necessarily less warmth, and more honed intent. "Ishirou can handle reconnaissance for suitable spots, I should think," he says. "I might be able to get a line to R&D for some emergency disbursements, too." He pauses, listens to Nika and Lilian's exchange. "Maybe I'd better," he concludes. "The things they come up with tend to be better for situations like this than for direct combat, anyway. I'll have a smoke and then reach out," he says, heading for the door. Hanging in the doorway, he looks over his shoulder at Nika. "We won't leave him behind. Keep me updated," he adds, before stepping out, one hand in the pocket of his fatigues.
Ishirou	Ishirou sighs...there is only one thing he can see in this situation, which would be buying time. Every other method of victory isn't winning at all. Things go as far as he's concerned. "I'll need to do more than that, James. I can scout for them, and I'll have mobility on my side. I can traverse where they can't see me, or shoot at me. Flight is optimal for me, but burrowing and water-based warfare will allow me to rob their advantages from them." He leans back. "I can reconnaissance for you, but I can also delay them by dropping traps and causing delays by turning the terrain against them. Not directly fighting, but making every step here take longer. Buying you all as much time as you need. That's all I can see here, and one screw-up in this and..." "Well, it's not like the other method was going to be any better for me," he says with a self-depreciated comment. He stands up. "I'll start preparing the R.E.S.C.U.E. Unit."
Trudy Grimm	The implication Trudy attempted to convey is largely ignored in favor of focusing entirely on an altogether different plan. Closing her eyes, the witch sighs with a shrug, "Alright." She reaches down to her side, moving the Grimoire until it rests on her lap, her hand placed on top of it, "I'll support Mister Lowell and Miss Tamamo to the best of my ability." An eye opens, that smile returning to her face, "I forsee much use of Uruz in my future." The Gateway rune, no doubt. "Since I seem to be out of the loop as far as destinations go," the witch adds with a glance between Arthur, Tamamo, and Lilian, "I will only be able to increase our portal mage's ability in this endeavor, anyway." Eyes closing again, she tilts her chin up and puts a haughty tone into her voice, "It'll likely be some time before my own input is needed for this master plan, though, Ishirou-- let me prepare some cursed bones for you. You could drop them like caltrops along their routes."
Petra Soroka	Petra briefly preens under the acknowledgement that intercepting them is a smart idea, as if it was a clever plan that only she came up with. "The Kana should be too sturdy for their snipers to get through, right? I mean, they have heavier weaponry than just that, but it'll take some time before they can actually set artillery up to be ready to fire, I think. So maybe some people could join me and try to pick some of them off at a distance, maybe distract them while Trudy and... Rita set up a better staging ground? Ishirou could scout from in there so he doesn't get picked off again." Everything Petra says sounds like a question, but she seems earnest. She frowns at Nika's response to Tamamo, and interjects with some vehemence, "I don't like that. Your things matter, a lot. You shouldn't have to fight, or do anything that you don't want to. There's never a time where you're better off not caring about the things you personally care about." With a bit of confusion at the unspoken conclusion, Petra turns to look between Lilian and Arthur. "We're holding them off until we can teleport the village away, then? Just to be clear."
Tamamo	'I know by now.' "It is so," Tamamo says, offering Oreshnika a smile. "Though it be difficult, we will define victory under our own terms, and seize it with our own efforts." 'How far? For how long? Can you bring them back?' "If it is safe to return.. and yet, can it be? They may return for you. If you take your whole home with you, will there be any need to return? You can ask the land and the stars for aid wheresoever you land, no? If you have difficulty, I am skilled in this matter, as well." Maybe by different means, but there's no point splitting hairs. 'Oh. You mean the place we--' "Though I had not expected to do so so soon, what better use could there be?" She isn't specifying the place, either, and there are two present reasons why. Less cheerfully, "Should we be forced to stay and fight, I see our greatest chance in laying a series of lethally dangerous layers of curses, scattered far between this place and their paths of approach, so as to force them to use their countermeasures in repetition. This would be a battle of endurance, and though I have some faith in mine, I would need devote a great deal of time. I can hardly provide my full support to two causes."
Rita Ma	"I'd take one Rita Ma over a full complement of men like those." Rita doesn't verbally respond, but she smiles shyly and bounces her leg a little. "Ah, no thank you. I appreciate it, but..." "Oh! Don't worry, Ms. Rook. I understand! I can give you one after all this is over." Rita beams with terrifying innocence. "Only Grimm and Rita can get us a feasible temporary barricade from their firepower." "Oh, like when we first met the Cycle of Tears, Ms. Rook?" Rita tilts her head and chews her lip, staring down at the map and trying to visualize what such a barrier would look like. "... I think I could do that in the next few hours. As long as you can help keep my energy levels up." By which Lilian can tell she means: 'I need a lot of steaks'. "Rita. Mister Bond. While I draw their attention, would you two be able to eliminate the agents?" "I could do my best," Rita says, but then on further thought, she reels it in a little. "That first time, it was really hard for me to pin them down. They're really durable. And with how many Ms. Rook said there might be..." She trails off, and then puts on a smile again. "Well, I could do my best. Especially if they're not paying attention to me, and Ms. Grimm lets me use her friends, and Ms. Petra supports us, and since I tried not to show them everything..." "And it's not like there's a whole lot else I could do for the plan, anyway I don't know anything about magic, after all." "Her name is Mat' Prizrakov. Why? Do you need me to talk to her?" "Mat' Prizrakov," Rita repeats. She glances to her side at Lilian. "That sounds really important, doesn't it? Your help might be good, Ms. Oreshnika, but... I was thinking I could talk to her, maybe. I told you earlier that I can talk to some things people can't, too."
Arthur Lowell	>Arthur: Yeah, those devices are gonna cause a huge problem for you "I'll be real, I got nothing for solving that. That's the issue. It's fucked, but those dudes came prepared for the only solution for this problem, and the best we can hope is that they pulled some prototype shit out of storage." Arthur's arranging the various bottles and cans in clusters, for those who can protect against sharpshooting, for those who can help him muster power and calculations and magical aid, for those who can disrupt the countermeasures... "Like, yeah, this is why I don't know shit about this. I got one strategy and it's to walk facefirst into the counter-strat they've got. But," He pounds his chest twice with a clenched fist. "Doing this the tough way and pushing through even though it's gonna suck ass, that's the only way I can think! You figure something better out with your own magics or your own strats, you make that happen, but this is all a dude like me is gonna get." A handful of the others have offered direct magical aid. Tamamo, Trudy, aid like that will be more than crucial, it'll be lifesaving. What Arthur has failed to mention is that the time he teleported a small floating city, it got very close to killing him. Teleporting a mountainside without those two offering their best aid would be guaranteed lethality, the kind his immortality can't resist. >Arthur: Open up about that Nah. He offers the pair his usual coolkid handshakes, as well as some for Oreshnika and Lilian. "Let's keep workshopping this thing. Fill in my gaps. Make sure this goes right. We'll make it work, no dying. I'mma lift this whole-ass mountainside across goddamn Asia if I gotta. Watch me march this geographic feature through Siberia in dead-ass winter, see how the geopolitical curse likes that shit for real." He's trying to psyche himself up a little.