Chevaleresse

"My gut told me you were a threat. I was wrong. And yeah, I don't think you need a list of the kind of scum I've run into." Mercenary life was actually a step up from piracy in that regard, mostly, but she'd met her fair share of unscrupulous mercies and clients that were equally so. Not that she wasted time on pondering this; Star Bitch evidently attempted something. The operative term being attempted; judging by her response, becoming blurry for a moment wasn't the intended result. "I really, really do not give a single fuck about your pride. I can smite people with beams too, in case you didn't notice. You're not special. Now let's get something very clear." Her voice dropped lower. "You are a liability at best. You started a pissing contest that ended with you threatening to blow the ship multiple times. You can stop doing that right now, or I can find my own way to ensure that nobody here gets spaced by some prissy bitch on a power trip. I don't think anyone else would complain if I did so. Do you understand your situation?" Somehow, her scowl became even deeper. "I don't work with people who are willing to do this kind of shit. Especially to their own crewmates."

Lucine glanced between the (now-glowing) pit, Proditor, and Nader, then evidently made her choice. She shuffled closer to the armored man. "A door sounds nicer than a giant hole." Part of her agreed with the others; she felt especially guilty since she had tipped the child into the pit and had to be bailed out herself. . . but that didn't make leaping into it again look any friendlier, especially after Nader laid out exactly why that was a bad idea.

Kusuke leaned into Satomi just a tad as he righted himself, shaking his head as if it would disperse whatever strange feeling in the air was interfering with him. "I think so. Something about this place is making my head spin, though." He realized he was standing slightly closer to the samurai than might be deemed proper once he was no longer actually supporting himself, but figured moving away at this point might be even more awkward. "I guess it's just me." Which could mean any number of things. As far as he knew, Satomi, Vitor, Tim, and himself were all baseline humans. Well, Harry had mentioned mutations, but he was pretty sure there wasn't nearly enough of that to make his responses to whatever this was markedly different from theirs. It wasn't magic sensitivity, otherwise everyone but Satomi would be reeling at the moment. He briefly went to age, but that wouldn't make sense given Satomi's lack of response - not that he really remembered what age he properly was. Time travel made things like that weird. Perhaps that was the difference? "Do you think it's my Drive?"

Scarlet almost raised an eyebrow. Star Bitch was faster than she'd initially thought, but evidently still not faster than light. She drew closer, but unlike Jack, stayed just far enough away that she couldn't lose control of her weapon to an errant sweep of a limb. "I'd be perfectly happy to continue shooting, myself. If you notice by the lack of holes in you, I'm not exactly trying to kill you, but by all means, if you want to continue to provide entertainment. . ." Not that she actually enjoyed torturing people, but she found that the threat of it could make people cooperative. Damaging the woman's ego was enough for her. Unfortunately, Walker was up again, which meant that Scarlet would continue to hear her complaints for the near future. She replied without taking her focus off of Stella. "I shot you because you got the dangerous kind of twitchy while you were talking to a kid. If you would prefer I avoid doing so in the future, avoid threatening minors in my presence." As if she realized how overly formal she was being, she added a final "You goddamn lunatic." The mercenary briefly glanced between Zoe, Stella, and Jack. "Now, can we go back to being friends stuffed in the same uncomfortable metal box, or are you going to continue to be an active hostile?"

Damnit. Well, Walker was either not quite as unhinged as Scarlet had initially believed, or far, far moreso - she almost regretted stunning her. "Yeah, talk shit about me, bud, make yourself feel better about knowing I'm right." Damn pirates. All of them thought they were immortal and that they were the only ones that mattered; Scarlet had simply been slightly more correct in her time. And then came the threats. She'd been threatened before, by people a lot more intimidating than Star Bitch here. In response to Stella's words, Scarlet simply fired another set of lasers in her direction now that Zoe was out of commission for the moment, already moving to avoid the counterstrike as she continued to lay down fire.

Kusuke stepped out of the bus. . . and immediately stumbled several steps sideways. He heard the two men shouting back and forth with the party, but wasn't quite able to catch everything being said by dint of trying to get his head to stop spinning. Something about Godot? "Uhh, I don't think I'm Godot, no." There was always the slim chance he could be, but that didn't sound quite familiar to him. Plus, this place didn't feel like home, unless you considered what it probably felt like to stand next to an active nuclear reactor. "I take it you two are waiting for him?" Kusuke held a hand to his head as he spoke. A quick glance around him showed no signs of anyone else being ready to fall over, though maybe they'd just adjusted faster than him - now that he'd had a moment, it really wasn't that bad. "Anyone else feel dizzy?"

The girl paused, still not having made it out of the alleyway. She turned, her cloak fluttering slightly. "Do you mean my. . . prop?" She thought for a moment before continuing. "This place has very strict laws about guns like this around large masses of people. It would be implausible for someone to carry a squad automatic weapon in without attempting to conceal it at all." It was hard to tell, but the corner of her mouth quirked up ever so slightly for a moment before returning to stony seriousness. "And we have no secure methods of concealment otherwise, unless you are in possession of one."

"Oh, you know, you just kinda. . . think about the moon, and run through that little rhyme in your head, and then. . ." Gwyn's head reared back, face scrunching up once more. "Arissell's better at this stuff than me, though." The half-fae looked down and frowned. "Uh, wait, I think, , ." Yet another sneeze, and yet another person took Gwyn's place on the seat. "There we go!" Gwyn sounded quite pleased with themselves.

Well, wasn't this just peachy. Star Bitch was lashing out at people left and right, and actually fired on Jack. Space Witch was obviously, dangerously unhinged, and seemed to be on the edge of violence - against a kid, no less. Her weapon being mostly assembled already, she casually clicked the last part into place, then snapped into a firing position and let off two laser bursts, at a medium intensity she liked to refer to as "lightly crisped." Not lethal unless you were being inventively horrible with your usage of the weapon, but generally enough to knock someone over and give them a good sting. The first one was aimed at Stella, the second at Zoe; Stella seemed slightly faster on the draw, and she didn't want to risk being disarmed (in a possibly more literal sense) before she got her second shot off.

Lucine shakily returned the hug - she didn't really know Calvera outside of having overheard her name a couple times, but she didn't exactly feel threatened by the woman. She glanced around awkwardly, still looking thoroughly unsettled after Arminius and Rachel took their respective dives into the hole. She felt helpless, even more than usual. Disengaging herself from Calvera, she turned to look at the hole, taking an instinctive step backwards from it (despite her already-safe distance.) "If it's a door, that means that kid is okay, right?" Her tone was almost pleading. "And we should be able to just go back through, since we have a bunch of people that can fly." Reversing her path, she edged toward the precipice, peering down into its seemingly-empty darkness. Despite her own words, she wasn't entirely keen on just jumping in.

Lucine shrieked as she tipped over into the abyss. . . and then suddenly found herself stuck near the edge instead of plummeting into the void. She screamed one more time for good measure before getting a grip on her exact situation - she didn't find herself falling to hear death any more, but she had just. . . pushed the other kid into the pit. "I-I'm sorry, I was just trying to- There has to be a way to save them, right!?" The girl wasn't exactly ready to deal with having killed another child, accidentally or no. Of course, the guy with the dragon girl was already on his way, but that didn't actually assuage her guilt.

Lucine pushed her way toward the front of the group, flicking the safety of her weapon back on and trying to hold it in as nonthreatening of a manner possible. "W-Wait, where are you going? We're just trying to figure out what's going on here." She hurried towards the strange child, possibly more hastily than was advisable, and reached for them, trying to grab their hand and pull them back from the precipice.

Lucine, for her part, elected to follow Nader's advice over Jun's, merely adjusting the grip on her weapon to be somewhat more practical for actually hitting a target. She had no plans of separating from the group, not when everyone else seemed to be so unnerved. They hadn't seemed this jumpy with an actual superpowered terrorist after them - it was really getting to her. The bright-haired girl mostly just stuck herself behind Nader's back, feeling marginally more safe sandwiched between the bulk of the group and the moving mass of alloy steel that was his armor.

Hiroki found herself opening and closing her mouth once again. She knew that what Lord was saying made sense, and at this point Hiroki didn't hold much doubt that she could overcome whoever Aries had to offer. Outside more entities like Arcturus crawling out of the woodwork, of course, but if Aries had that in his back pocket, their decision here probably wouldn't matter anyway. Another crushing defeat like the one Lord handed her - and if Lord couldn't beat Arcturus, she almost certainly couldn't - wouldn't do much but crush the confidence she was still piecing back together. So why was she about to say this? "I, um, I said I would take, um, his challenge later." She inhaled deeply, trying to brace herself for the counterarguments - most of which were going to, in all likelihood, be quite sensible - and continued. "We have most of the tournament, um, fighters, except for Slumbering Giant. I, um, could hold against him for the longest, at least." Or even beat him. I have to try. "If, um, you need to learn about him, you should let me fight him."

Arturia noted Lilith's discomfort, but found herself unable to think of a way to address it. I knew it was a bad idea to bring jewelry up. Fortunately, before they could fester in awkwardness for too long, a distraction in the form of a cute boy made itself known. She almost startled herself with the thought; Arturia had never been the type to be "on the hunt," so to speak, rarely noticing such things unless she was specifically seeking them out. The awkwardness ratcheted up again when he began to bow and scrape. "Uh, hi, Betwere," she started rather lamely. She was pretty sure she understood why he was nervous, though it didn't do much for the silver-haired girl's own feelings. "We were just visiting Miss Katherine. Is she busy?" A part of her wanted to reassure the boy that he didn't have to be so formal, but she also didn't know how to manage that without making it more awkward. Maybe it'd just naturally come if she visited often?

"Yeah, and when's the last time you met a retired pirate?" Dumb bastard. Emphasis on bastard. Maybe he'd learn, maybe he'd end up floating through the void of space with a couple extra holes in him. She didn't particularly care which, or who was responsible in the latter case. "That game only lasts for so long." Sure, she'd made it quite a while. She could also regrow entire limbs given enough time, and was pretty good at playing dead to fool bounty hunters; it helped when you could take what would be a killing shot on anyone else and live.

So, what they knew was that they knew nothing. Other than Arcturus being hideously powerful, of course. And Ice Griffyn was Watcher's child, that was new information, if not strictly relevant to here. Or, related in some way, anyway. She didn't waste time thinking about it; she was already spending a fair amount of cognitive effort on forcing herself to pay attention instead of withdrawing inward mentally and mulling Blink's situation over to no effect. I hope she's okay. Aries reappearing was also the least of what she had expected. There had to be some kind of motive here; all of her combat experience told her that if an opponent seemed to be deliberately leaving themselves open for a strike when they had the advantage, that you should do anything but take that chance. Strike where they thought they were toughest and shatter it, don't fall into the trap they'd set for you. What Hiroki heard from the gods did not sound like a consideration of that at all. "Lord, you referred, um, to 'us gods' and Arcturus separately. Um, wouldn't that mean Arcturus wasn't a god, and that he, um, could end up fighting one of us?" It was almost mythological. Offer what seemed to be a compromise, weasel a victory in through a loophole in the wording. Declare that no man will harm someone, then have a woman stab them in the back. The only part she didn't want to admit was that a part of her hoped that was, indeed, what Aries intended; then she might be able to take Arcturus up on his offer.

"I can't say I've hit thousands either. At this point, I'd be. . ." Scarlet leaned back for a moment, fingers moving as if she were counting on them. "A hundred and fifty four? Something like that. Wasn't trapped on some eternal war hellhole, though, just found some apex tech pretty early on." And boy was that a mistake. "I've left my pillaging and stealing days a long ways behind me, though. Or I'm trying to." Things like that had an awful habit of catching up to you. Of course, that was why she was a merc at all. That, and she didn't have a lot of marketable skills that were applicable to something other than mercenary work. "I'd advise you to do the same." She gestured at the pirate with her (by now) mostly-complete weapon. Scarlet definitely wasn't going to be facilitating anything like that, not if she could help it.

"Mock ye not the fae, lest short ye find your days." The phrase was intoned far more seriously than Gwyn's impression of the butler. It didn't last long, though; "Lucan" sneezed again, and Gwyn sat in the seat once more. "Or something like that. Arissell was always better at remembering that kind of stuff than I was." Gwyn shrugged, and took a sip of the tea. "Oh, I bet Gaheris would like that. Could I have a gallon of this for him?"

"I'm not sure that I cherish the idea of dying." She could do a lot more good if she didn't have to worry about keeping her hide in a quantity of pieces small enough that she could put them back together. "Not that it's something I have to worry about much, long as I keep my head." So this Jack - the one she liked more, so far, especially now that it seemed like he wasn't actually going to cap her for shits and giggles - was from a world where everyone came back? That sounded like either heaven, or hell. . . and judging by his response, Scarlet would bet on the latter being closer to the truth. "Walker here isn't the only one that's been around for a long, long time."

Gwyn opened their mouth, but instead of speaking, they simply inhaled, their eyes scrunching up. The half-fae held up one finger. Gwyn sneezed, and abruptly, there was a somewhat different figure sitting in their seat. "Oh dear, madam, I fear I have contracted a terminal case of stuffy butt, would you ever happen to know of a cure?"

Lucine walked out of the bus and stretched out - before immediately wrinkling her nose at the air around them. She was about to complain, and stopped with her mouth wide open before being stopped by the words of the rest of the group. Her mouth clapped shut (with a twinge of regret for the deeper breath she'd taken by mistake) as she moved forward slightly, putting herself closer to the center of the party. "Um, should I get ready for something?" Her voice quavered a bit with nervousness; shaky hands gripped her shotgun tightly to her chest.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Scarlet understood Jack's ramblings, possibly better than he did. She'd spent her share of time around sloshed pirates; he didn't look overtly drunk now, but she knew the type. "Yeah, uh, not sure if you're aware, but most people where I'm from tend to stay dead if you put enough bullets in them." She was suddenly very glad she was having this talk now, and not explaining why she was upset as she bled on the floor from a shot in the back.

Gwyn heard the tone change. It was something the half-fae had heard before, at home. People around there weren't always nice to people like Gwyn, but maybe Rosanne would be, so Gwyn decided not to make an issue of it. After all, there were other, bigger bad guys to beat up. The matter was gone from their mind as quickly as it had entered, when Rosanne started to speak. This was so exciting, being in an audience with the Queen herself! It was like Gwyn was a knight, a proper knight out of the stories. "Of course I'l help, Lady Rosanne! Saving people is what I do! Kinda." Gwyn fought bad guys, too, and that wasn't really saving them, but that also didn't really count. "Plus if Lancelot is there, I'll get to see if all the stories Lady Titania told about him were true."

Arturia blinked. "Oh." Supermarket. "I thought you meant. . . Uh, nevermind that." If she hadn't thought of the same thing, she wasn't going to be the pervert that admitted to her mind going there. "Anyway. . . I don't really have a lot of money to throw around - Mom just takes it back if I don't spend it all, so I can never really save. Plus I'm not really sure where to just get silver, unless you've got a lot of nice jewelry or something." Arturia started to walk down the halls, in the direction she remembered Miss Katherine's office being in; she wasn't too worried about being overheard. Snippets of the conversation would just sound like something out of a fantasy novel or roleplaying game, unless the listener was already in the know - and everyone in the know seemingly wanted a piece of both of them already.