Sutoratosu

"...." the knight said nothing as a mechanical bear proceeded to maul the fool from earlier. He simply turned, and raised his blade to a ready stance once more, just encase... If the Drop Bear has been knocked off of leo, Stellio Attacks the Drop Bear with the Headsman! (Deals {2d6+Str[7]} Dark/Slashing Damage, has 30% chance to inflict "Dark Adverse" Status for 3 turns {Sufferer takes 1.25x more damage from dark based sources}. Stellio will gain +1 Str/Ess from either dealing or receiving damage) If the above Statement is true, Stellio then attacks the Drop Bear with the Headsman again. Otherwise, Stellio Holds both his actions Loadout

"Uh huh..." Lucille said, still missing quite a few pieces of this puzzle, but getting the general idea. In all honesty, she didn't know who this 'Kusuke' even was, or how he somehow could merge and blow up boats... infact hell, now that she was pondering about it "I see, I guess nobody died in the end though.... in all honesty I heard the blast from like, clear on the other side of the docks, but I wasn't really sure if you guys were involved or not. Also man, now that I think about it.... I've barely met like 3 or 4 out of all of you..." Lucille, to her credit however, seemed to waste absolutely no time lamenting that pathetic bit of trivia about her own introversion, instead turning her attention back to time fucked blade "Oh well, in all honesty, there's already one person in particular I wish I hadn't met, but it doesn't matter. If there's more of this metal, I'd like to take a look at it... could be useful for a lot of things, if certain properties were removed or stabilized...hmmmm like so...." She got out of her seat, onto the floor, and nigh immediately, pulled a peice of charcoal from one of the many pockets her vest sported. Scribbling runes and equations like a madwoman, in no time at all she'd finished the sigil, and inside of it she placed the Katana. And without a word as to what the fuck she was doing, how the fuck she was doing it, or why, she spoke a single, mind bending word which seemed to twist and distort the air around the three of them and caused reality itself to bend, as brilliant white light filled the aisle between the seats. Whatever Lucille did, however she did it, it was hard to discern with the radiance in the way, but after perhaps no more than a full minute, the light died again, and in Lucille's hand, was the Katana... A Katana which looked a thousand times better than the one Jun had originally handed her, despite the fact that as she held it inert it was naught but a rusted shell of itself... Lucille smiled however, as she made a quick, sudden motion, and the blade quickly went from rusted to a shining blade that could slice the flow of time itself, unbridled temporal might in the hands of a mere girl. She stopped the blade before it could actually strike anything however, and just like that, it went back to a rusted, but slightly glowing state. She held the finished product out to Jun "Well, there ya go. Just like I thought, all I needed to do was discard the concepts of "Peice of shit" and "random" and you get this. It'll probably be the same for any other shards of this stuff.... you guys do have more, right?"

"Oh? Well then," she smiled, though there was just... a hint of something beneath it, a certain approval...like someone watching an unrepentant villain get their just deserts "I suppose that makes you, and all the rest of us too. So, just what have you decided then, Mercer? Are you going to tag along, help end this petty madness? If things go well in the meeting, I highly doubt funding will be an issue, and coupled with the fact you've already proven yourself a man of at least some character, I doubt Meredith would have much justification to turn down your help, if you offered it."

"Yes, I suppose in all likelihood, that would be our next destination. Besides, if something goes wrong here, Yukihana will definitely be our only hope left, period. But... if everything runs smoothly, it'll simply be the last, long overdue nail in Roswell's coffin." "but that also begs the question- what of you, Mercer? Are you thinking of coming with us? You're certainly asking quite a lot of questions...questions which I must be honest, I would not be answering, were it not for the help you gave us earlier. Not that I still think you're an agent of the king or anything at this point, but one can never be too careful when it comes to accounting for loose ends these days, you know?"

"Eh? Oh, you mean... nevermind" she said, taking the katana. No point letting slip out she'd only intended to make one, and in truth had no fucking clue how or why the other, little sapient drake had come about. Actually she should probably bring that up to someone at some point- probably Harry, out of all of them. He seemed to have at least some professional knowledge from what she'd gleaned thus far, and he'd been there to see the stone's creation in the first place. She'd also have to tell him where she'd stowed the money on here too, considering she'd still yet to do so. But those were concerns for later, as she let her senses transcend the physical realm and scried the blade... "This is um..." what was the proper way to describe it? She could tell from information flowing in that the work done on the blade itself was, no offense to mirri, shitty. But the metal used, now that was an entire, boundlessly more fascinating topic in and of itself "Well, it could definitely be better. You said you had her make this out of weird metal you found? After an... explosion...?" She paused for a minute, sighing every so lightly Dear Mavens it was you guys afterall... "Is there any more of this weird metal? How much of it did the....explosion I heard make? And what were you guys even doing that caused it in the first place?"

Maya paused, for a few moments, thinking over the question. Before long however, she finally responds with "Well, going so far as to say we caused checkpoints to be established is a bit much I think- we probably just... agitated the ones already in place as a result of the war. As you say, our group is small enough that on the surface, we post little threat, nowhere near large or imposing enough at this moment to warrant devoting entire battalions to be moved from their postings for the sole reason of checking every travelling band. She chuckled, ever so slightly, "Though truth be told, we.... may have killed a few previous checkpoint commanders who tried to stop us, and a few other officers of high prestige on our way over here... so that also may have rustled a few feathers. I certainly wouldn't put it past that pig of king or his harlot holy woman of a bride to start getting frustrated and specifically installing chokes along major roads simply to spite us. But as you say, if things go well here, and we get the support we need, such actions would be entirely warranted. But... by then, it could well be the beginning of 'too little, too late' for the king..."

"Oh, ok then..." it was lucille's turn to shrug. A bit of an odd response, but she didn't really care enough to press it.... for now. Jun might've noticed the girl's eyes, now that she was up close; irides of a sterling platinum that almost seem to shimmer under certain angles in the light.... that also had no pupils to speak of whatsoever. Infact, from how blankly lucille stared at the woman, eyes simply fixed directly in front of her, it was hard to even say she was 'looking' at jun at all. More like she'd simply turned her head in the general direction of the woman "And I mean, just because I did, doesn't mean anyone else here could. I hear what other people either choose to ignore, or simply don't even know is there to begin with. I kinda have to, since I'd never be able to tell what's going on as I can otherwise. Well, I guess I could, but constantly having to scry through these guys is a chore-" to clarify what she meant, both Do and Astra, cat and western dragon, turned and focused directly on Jun, now that her field had dropped and nothing was there to discourage them. It was faint, but there in their eyes was the same, shimmering quality Lucille's had to them... then the shimmering faded, and they seemed to lose interest in the woman, curling up next to their mistress, just as they'd been before. "Anyway, did you just come over here to talk to me or...? Sorry, but it's been awhile since I've really.... talked to another person. Until I came here, the most I had were either enemies, or beasts; Enemies tend to just want to see you dead, doesn't matter why or how, and inside a beast's mind is just a bunch of instinctual impulses and basic emotions, nothing that you can actually have, you know, a real conversation with. so... uh... if you were looking for someone to chat with, I'm probably not that great a choice, just heads up." Of course, even Lucille herself knew only part of that reasoning was true- in all honesty she had never been a very big fan of socializing, people always either turned the topic to unwanted pity over her defect, or disgust over the fact she'd been allowed to live despite said defect, when tradition clearly stated her first breath should've been her last. Or they simply didn't hold her interest with anything they talked about. She honestly preferred to eavesdrop on conversations, rather than engage in them- at least that way she could drop out whenever she lost interest, and not face any passive aggression over the other person getting offended. Being out alone for... mavens know how long, had simply made that disposition even stronger. Eavesdropping on potential enemies and never talking to them had it's cornucopia of benefits, and even though beasts weren't capable of intelligent discourse, and occasionally tried to eat or mangle her, they also never tried to patronize her, or call for the old laws to be upheld and her existence be put to an end in order to prevent her defective genes spreading to future generations.

Despite the cloaking device, and the fact that both the dragon babe and her pets seemed to actively try and ignore whatever it was, Lucille had kept her attention trained on Jun's position the entire time she'd snuck around the bus, while idly talking to the newborn coiled on her shoulder. The faint, almost intentionally lightened footsteps were what mostly drew her attention to it, and the fact that upon clicking her tongue, there was indeed something vaguely humanoid for the sound to bounce back off of. Soon enough, that vaguely humanoid thing had turned towards her. What in the goddamn...? "Um... hi?" She said, well, more like asked, rather hesitantly. The voice sound like a woman's, and the footfalls had reminded her of a certain Hobbylobby security manager...this woman was just far more adept at it than Joe, from how much quieter about it she was. But then again, what Joe lacked in raw stealth, he more than made up for in stature and intimidation factor, so it probably evened out. Still made her rather leery that someone felt the need to actually slink around in such a small space though, considering they were all supposedly "allies" and there was no real logical point to it she could see... "you can call me Lucille, I guess..." she continued, "by the way, why were you... sneaking around the place until now? That was what you were doing right? the way you walked definitely sounded like it."

The cleric turned from her current station, seeming to have almost been in....conversation with someone? As to who or what she'd been doing, simply standing there however, was anyone's guess, as she looked Mercer up and down. Finally though, she answered... "We had spent the past few weeks trying to evade encounters with the Dragao army whenever we can, and we'd already gotten into several messes with enemy commanders hounding us at checkpoints." the priest said, voice rather bluntly "With how you came up to us, with your axe brandished and your cryptic little riddles regarding whether we'd like to die right then and there and have our corpses left to be swallowed by the desert storms, well.... just what was I to think you were, good sir? Besides an opportunistic bandit, or some agent of the king sent to personally pursue us?" "Given how you chose to.... introduce yourself, I suppose I couldn't help but let a bit of my enmity for that Cloudbreaker Whore we'd just gotten done with bleed onto you. In all honesty however, even if that commander had been from any other house, with how things were set up, I was fully expecting you to try something, and had no intention of letting you do it. In that moment, as far as I could see it, it was your life or potentially that of one of my companions... and the decision was no contest for me; we had already put down more than a few rabid dogs who attacked us, just within that very hour... one more would have made no difference." "Buuuuuut..." she sighed "You did hold true to your word and got us to the city safely... so in hindsight, perhaps I do owe you an apology now. I am sorry that the circumstances you found us in twisted our first meeting to potentially....ugly ends, and that I called for you death under the incorrect inference that you bore us ill will. Please understand, my job in this party may be to heal, but I prefer to prevent my companions wounds altogether whenever possible... and the easiest way to do that is often to bring attention to 'would-be' threats they haven't spotted yet, before said threats stop being merely 'would-be'. You however, obviously turned out to not be one of those...so again, I am sorry, Mercer."

"Ha!" Tesla laughed as the single cannon round pinged harmlessly off her mech and landed somewhere off in the distance. Silently, she hovered over to the downed Robot, and once she was close enough the front section of her mech split and opened with a great torrent of hissing vapor. The young vigilante tinkerer dropped down right near the Robots head, taking out her head and going to work immediately. The Mech itself hummed as it hovered nearby idly, awaiting it's pilot to return. She had no fear of potential bodily harm, for the exact same reason she had no fear when she'd repaired Hiroki in Tempest; so long as one's Mech was still actively manifested into reality, they were protected by the Favor it was produced from. Attacks against her exposed body would do no more than pass through harmlessly- she would feel some degree of pain if struck, of course, but nothing permanent would be inflicted, in terms of injury. "Well, looks like the scans weren't kidding when they said it was harmless. Come on in, you guys! That Cannon on the wall? It does jack, from the looks of it, probably just there for decoration" Tesla removes the head of the Robot Aptonoth, she then dismantles the body for Scrap Material

"Uuuuum.... know what, nevermind" Lucille sighed, as she Do look over to where the girl in tinfoil armor was playing with the sparkles she'd extracted from the rock. She seemed totally in her own little world, and Lucille honestly didn't know how much talking would do. Instead she turned her attention back to the rock, and with the passing impression she would probably regret this, she took a breath. And she reached out... Like she was binding a beast, but instead of instilling a part of herself to try and establish control, she tried to communicate with it..... Do had turned his attention on the event unfolding before them, allowing the girl to get a visual of what was actually occuring. Even Astra had quite her flying practice and landed on a nearby crate, looking at the newborn lifeform with interest. Lucille simply stood there, speechless, mouth agape at whatever madness this was, before slowly but surely, she collected herself, and stopped down next to the little dragon. Once more, she reached out, but this time checking for something... Sapience... the ability to reason, the possession of wisdom, or at least, the potential to someday.... and this little dragon here possessed the seeds for it. The girl said nothing as she stayed there, mind and heart alike racing, as the significance of what she'd done here hit her like a tempest fresh out of a hurricane... and with it came simultaneous wonder, and horror at what she had, somehow, managed to accomplish. This being here had the same potential as a newborn human child... "O-okay, lucille, come on, deep breath... don't freak out...this is...good? potentially?" She had trouble convincing herself of it, as her voice trembled. There were laws against giving Sapience to life forms that did not inherently possess it, in the olden days, and so too were there laws against creating sapient beings from scratch. Laws set in place to prevent disaster, rules set in place because if a Thaumist could not control that which they created, it was their duty to destroy it in order to safeguard the rest of the world from the potential havoc their creation might wreak... And both old Arganor and the Laws the Maven's themselves had passed onto her were also clear on one simple fact- To use the Thaum to dominate the mind of another Sapient being was an abomination, a crime worthy of death, or fates worse than it... and together, those laws, both old and new, left her with little choice... she knew what they would tell her to do, if they were here right now, in her head. She knew what her father would ultimately have told her to do, what any of the Thaumist from the college would've... "No..." She muttered beneath her breath, "I can't... I won't... they may be our ways, our traditions, but this can't be the way. To hell with the old laws, to hell with what the men of the past decreed, they were the ones who wrecked it all in the first place. What did those arrogant fucks know of prudence, of sound judgement? What did they know of doing what was right, of protecting their world? Nothing... They knew nothing. And it got everyone killed. The only Thaumic Laws I'm obligated to uphold are those of the Mavens..." And the Mavens said nothing of creating sapient life... only about dominating the minds of other sapients. By their word, the very ones who had taught her kind how to even perform such feats as this in the first place, lucille had done nothing wrong. Hence, there was no reason to take... corrective actions. "Um.... hi there, little guy," She said to the newborn dragon, unable to help but wonder if he'd understand her at this point... or if she'd someday be able to teach him to speak, as he grew older. Either way, there was undeniably something here worth raising up, protecting, if only to see what the young lifeform would someday become and do, if led in the right direction. A type of potential only Sapient beings could possibly comprehend, that only they could possess... a type of potential beasts simply lacked. Why, even Astra, as interesting as the ivory drake was, paled in comparison to this. The difference between mere sentience, and actual sapience, was like a candle compared to a roaring forest fire, a single drop of rain compared to the ocean... "I'm lucille," she continued, still not entirely sure if she was even cut out for the task, but absolutely certain that she wasn't going to do as a Thaumist of her world would've historically, in this situation. "And.... I guess I'm the closest thing you have to a mom....well this is... gonna be interesting..." Do meanwhile, kept his eyes on the gems as his mistress welcomed the new lifeform into the world, watching for even the slightest sign of change, on her orders.... Lucille obtains the following:

As the sun marched to it's peak in the sky and eventually began to descend once more, Lucille could be found just outside the Warehouse through one of the large garage-like doors. The Dragon Whelp flew in small pinwheels in the air just a few meters overhead, giving what seemed to be pleased, raspy screeches as it continued it's practice... squeals that in all likelyhood would someday become blood curdling roars that leeched the courage from men's bones and made them shake in their boots, just like the mythic predators of old the drake was based off of... just like the ones they had shown her. But that was a concern for later. She didn't even know whether the Drake would grow to such sizes, or how long it would be until she did, but so long as she was under Lucille's watch, there was little chance of the ancient past repeating itself... for though the whelp was in all other ways a nigh spot on replication of one, a genuine, historical Arganorian Dragon, she was not. The powers she held came from the Alchemical principles Lucille had used in her creation, not from her soul being split between this world and the heavens... She was a Chimera, not a Mythic. But either way, Lucille could almost sense the great potential within... she had already brought her under control, now the only thing left to do was to fix that one glaring issue with the scales... later though. She didn't quite have anything on hand she felt comfortable using in the ritual to correct it. "You're doing pretty well," she called to the whelp, before jokingly to herself "Who knows, maybe someday you'll actually be big enough to ride on, if you end up growing beyond this size" Again, the whelp screeched with content. Like a streak of gliding, fluttering white on the ocean winds, she continued to bob and weave. With Astra (the working name she'd given to the beast, it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing) having progressed to the point she could fly without the girl's direct guidance, lucille felt it was as good a time as any to look into something that had been bothering her for most of the day. She took the Hearthstone out of her pocket, tossing it about in her hand a few times, still wrapped up in clothe. This damn thing had been no end of unpleasantness yesterday, but well... as they said, tomorrow had indeed been a new day, and so would the tomorrow following this one. She'd merely given up the first time, even if it was somewhat justified, given the thing had thrown her into the wall, disoriented her, and then topped it all off by assaulting her senses to the point of vomiting. But she had a different methodology in mind this time... one that would ensure none of that fuckery could be repeated. And so taking off the clothe wraps, she scryed the stone, ascending to a higher consciousness and peering at it, not through any physical insight, but a metaphysical one... and she gleened from it A wave of repulsion rolled over her, and showed on her face, as once more the sensation from yesterday overtake it. With it came a familiar nausea, but she was nowhere near as disoriented as she had been the first time, and manged to keep her lunch down. Eventually she managed to parse the feeling enough that the discomfort faded altogether, as she tried to dechiper the true meaning behind it all... Repulsion gave way to curiosity. At the very least, the Stone itself was not Sentient. That much she could be thankful for. But whatever disembodied spirit, energy, etc that was bound to it... well that was a different story. Curiosity gave way to caution. There were several potential ways she could've gone about trying to crack the mystery further- more scry sessions or a transfiguration ritual just being chief among them... but she found herself hesitating abit to potentially empowering this thing with the latter. And the Former, well... obviously whatever this thing was, it was enjoying fucking with her... didn't really make her all that eager to continue these little sessions. Either way though, a bright, shining beam of rainbow light projected out from the stone and into the sky, along with a general rainbow glow in it's general vicinity, unbeknownst to Luciile given well... obvious reasons. All she felt was the Synesthesia of colors expressed as smell and tastes. Anyone in the warehouse or nearby however, could doubtlessly notice it with ease.

Stellio 28/28 HP; 5/30 MP; 0/200 TP Current Ogre Boost: +0 Str/Ess Ess/Str/Dex/Int/Syn/Res/Con 5/6/0/5/0/8/4 -minimum of 2 moves each round -MP-regen boosted by Int ((5)); MP actions have their checks boosted by 1/2 Int ((2)) The knight looked upon the rigged field, and drew his blade with a surprisingly fluid and graceful motion, obviously far less hindered by his armor than he'd been the day before, and all the days before that one. He still wasn't quite sure what had been different about how he'd adjusted it last time compared to the past, but either way, it was certainly having it's boons. "The boy is right, all of you, stay away from the fields. If you can engage from a range, either help us clear the explosives from afar, or keep the enemy over yonder occupied for us." With that said, he took up his mighty blade in both hands, channeled the mana from all around him into it's ebony edge, and made a hefty stroke that cut the very air itself as a shockwave of slashing, unbridled darkness hurtled right towards one of the Minefields, hopefully proving enough to start up a chain reaction of detonations. Stellio makes an Attack with the Headsman and spends 5 mp to convert it into a ranged strike, targeting Minefield 3! Stellio then holds

Lucille stared down at the tiny miracle sitting before her, and unlike earlier, it wasn't the dragon. No, both the dragon and the cat were beside her, Do sitting lazily among the pile of accorns, seeds, and various other plant stuffs he'd collected upon her direction, and the Dragon simply sitting there with a confused expression on her face. The last of the glow from that circle of scattered dreams faded, and in its place was something that marked perhaps the most significant thing she'd accomplished in the past 42 hours. Well, the most significant in the sheer benefits and practical uses it could provide if nothing else, at least. Sheer Magnitude wise, it didn't come quite close making a theoretically immortal being, or transmuting functioning, non-flesh horror life from an inanimate object, but still... A Galdur Tree. A Tree from which every part of could be harvested and made into some type of medicine, a tree which practically brimmed with life force... a tree that had, on more than one occasion saved her life as it derivatives mended her wounds. And now she was holding the seed of one... one she had created, through nothing more than a bit of fusion and probably some subconscious influences from her earlier thoughts coloring her intentions. "I did it..." She muttered beneath her breath, still scarcely believing it herself. Even now, a small chuckle began to escape, growing louder, and louder, as she scoped up the small seed from the now inactive sigil "I did it.... by the mavens I actually did it! hahahah.... I was so worried how I'd replace the salves, once they were gone, even went and made that kazoo thing, but it doesn't even matter anymore-" She stood, putting the thing away safely, along with the staff and the charcoal she used for the ritual. Just as before, the charcoal lines she had drawn slowly disintegrated, leaving nothing but blank concrete in their place "I wonder... this world and Arganor doesn't seem terribly different, in basic environment factors... this could probably grow here, if I planted it...though, it would be better to do it somewhere I could keep a close eye on it..." A Close Eye indeed. One wrong decision now, and it could very well cost her the one ticket to accessing the best medicinal plant in her world she had... to speak nothing of the lost benefits to other worlds they benefitted, if she planted this genesis of the plant somewhere careless and it was destroyed by some happenstance... A Pot would probably work best, until it grew large enough to be transplanted to open soil- hopefully by that point she'd have found somewhere secure enough to do so. She started her search immediately, wandering about the warehouse with Do and the Dragon looking about as her literal eyes, a self-satisfied, yet not quite smarmy grin on her face...

Aurora took one of the anchors in her hand, concentrated for not even a full second, and opened her palm for the artist to inspect, before dumping the bauble into his awaiting hand. Now rather than glowing a mere golden-white hue, the trinket cycled through all the colors of the visible light spectrum, and then about every shade in between those colors, all in a pattern that in total took about 5 or so minutes to complete from the lightest shade of red to the deepest shade of violet. "Color is child's play for a goddess of light," She responded to the artist, "and good, at least some flesh bags around here are acknowledging this growing problem, and actually getting off their behinds to fix it... if only a few more would follow suit. Then again, it's obvious they won't, given I had to make these blasted things to begin with. Moving on- how to use it...Listen closely, I will not repeat myself" The goddess snapped her fingers, and nigh instantly, a brilliant display of lights blossomed on the stone floor in front of the duo, quickly arranging itself into a diagram bearing heavy resemblance to some sort of wheel, though the usual components such as the outer edge and he spokes were replaced with more... abstract designs; images of miniature conflagrations that danced in place, rivers of flowing water, shifting dunes of sand, wind swept plains... skeletons that walked as if they were alive, and grazing animals in some primordial field. As Venus watched, these images would've converged around the center most point of the wheel, and many more- too many to describe here, would file in after them, taking up positions near what would be the spokes and outer edges. "The world you see around you" She began "Is not the be all and end all and be all of reality. There are infact several different "Planes", which are all loosely connected to one another, and together make up all things in existence. As this diagram here portrays, imagine these planes, if you will, as all being a part of a great, potentially infinite wheel-" She pointed towards the center, where the elemental images had converged "Right there, in the center of the wheel, are the parts which make up the "Inner Planes". Each inner plane consists of raw elemental forces and matter, such as Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, and has their own subplanes, directly related to them. But the primary elements are not the only ones which comprise these realms- there is also the Negative Plane and Positive Plane, the latter of which is most relevant to our purposes. It is from the Positive Plane where the energy which makes all life possible in the first place originates, and the energy produced by this plane, through various processes I've neither the time nor the investment to explain, merge together with the primary elements in order to create flesh and blood entities such as yourself. The heat you give off represents fire, the blood in your veins water, the minerals and calcium in your bones earth, the breath you take in and exhale air... and the force which animates and binds all these things together into the coherent shape that is your body, is Positive Energy. When you, or any fleshie thing, is injured, you can be healed at a far more rapid pace than naturally possible by channeling more energy from the Positive Plane into this one, and Syphoning it directly into your body... with appropriate moderation. And that brings us to these Trinkets. In worlds such as this one, and my own, mages, clerics, etc. draw upon the energies in these Inner Planes, and diffused into the environments of the Material Planes they inhabit. This manipulation of energy from unseen sources is called "Evocation". What I have, therefore, done to create these baubles, is create an inbuilt Evocation spell inside each one of them, an enchantment, as you would likely know it, that when triggered will cause an automatic channeling of energy from Positive Plane, through this Bauble and it's evoker, and into whoever they mean to target. This methodology makes it so that even an absolute idiot can in theory activate the effect and channel energy from the Positive Plane- with these baubles, it is not a question of whether or not the spell succeeds at all, but rather how well it succeeds. And that depends entirely on the abilities of the user. Someone with ample inherent magic just waiting to be tapped, like say.... a Sorcerer, would be able to easily channel quite a bit of energy into their target with a single casting. Someone who is less inclined, or lacks natural magic altogether, but has spent their whole life learning it, such as a wizard, would not be able to draw as much raw energy as a Sorcerer would, but their understanding of the Arcane and everything related would let them weave a far more versatile spell than a Sorcerer who relies on pure talent alone, and instead of merely closing wounds, they could also manage to heal some illnesses and other ailments as well. Now of course, it would be the most beneficial if one had both inherent raw power, and an understanding of power when using these... but regardless, their activation is simple: utter the following words with conviction and intent, and focus your mind on your target" Death is forbidden.

"I'll come too, I suppose" maya answered. Not like she had terribly much else to do, besides, a party sounded like the perfect way to celebrate their... recent triumph over those shit-eating, cloud-breaking, sky blue haired swines. Well, one of them, at least. Still many more to go. But it wouldn't hurt either way. Besides, she could keep an eye on Ecquis, made sure he behaved himself around this "Anna Beatrice" he apparently knew so well....

"Whoever built this knew what they were doing," the woman relayed as she turned her sights on the cannon jutting out of the wall, aimed at the entity for whatever reason "Even though it's piss weak and the scans show that its most likely harmless. The cannon on it's back might as well be for show really. Anyways... enough standing around, it's time to see what else this place has to offer." And with that said... a whirring hum could be heard, as suddenly a massive wave of violet electricity surged over her armor and poured forth into the room, expanding at blinding speeds and heading right for the robotic lifeform... Tesla Scans the Cannon embedded in the wall She also activates the Tesla Pulse effect on her Tesla Spheres, firing an EMP at the Aptonoth with the intent to disable it non-lethally

"This is...." Tesla looked around the room, through the violet tinted, shining eyes of her mech, What caught her attention most were the mechanical entity in the middle of the area, especially the brain in a jar. Even more interesting was the massive cannon embedded at the wall and the rock bench on the opposite side of the room from it...those glowing plates though... she might have to harvest a few while they were down here "Well, we don't definitely don't have anything as crazy as this back home. And I'm kinda glad, not gonna lie..." With that said, she proceeded to stay where she was and Scan the grazing robot using her Mech's Sensor array, trying to obtain any information she could about it's specifications, capabilities, functions, etc.

Finding the tone to be pleasing, Lucille had pocketed the kazoo and moved on to a new project, dismissing the circle. In it's place, she drew a different, a Transfiguration Sigil, nothing more than a single circle with countless equations write out in runic symbols. But she didn't activate it at the moment... no, first she had to build what she was going to alter. She reached into the bag and took out the metal modeling kit, getting work with the many pieces. Before long, with a little bit of Scrying the instructions, and calling Do over to look more than a few times, she had finally managed to get it right- as in the thing eventually resembled the picture on the package, rather than some horrible metal mess assembled by a blind girl relying primarily on sound to dictate her hand movements. "Well, let's see how this goes..." She was silently praying to the maven's wherever they might have gone, that this didn't turn out as some catastrophic collapse that resulted in something.... less than living. And with that prayer uttered, she took up her staff once more, tapped it against the circle's parameter, and activated it. With the metal model inside, the thing flared to life instantly, and before lucille the many traits which made it up became clear. Using her scrying and a bit of mental exertion, she managed to grab hold of the properties would could prove problematic- Metal, Model, Fake, etc, and cast them aside from the greater whole, feeling it as they left the circle, and the moment they did, dissipated into the ether, reduced into nothingness now that they were unbound and had no force to induce them to recombine into something new. What remained in the circle on the other hand, was something that lucille, as she gazed upon it through Do's eyes, could help but let out a little cry of adoration as it sat there. An all white, gleaming dragon whelp, a bit on the overweight side and panting with obvious exertion just to draw in air. Pug-like, one could almost say. Though it's expression seemed content enough, the longer Lucille gazed at it through Do, the more and more her adoration turned into pity, and pity beginning to give way into Guilt. She had come so close, the thing was alive, but nowhere near as healthy as it should've been. As she could make it. But unlike yesterday, where she'd merely accepted her failures and wallowed in self pity, she shook her head "No, no... I can fix this, I know I can-" and with that resolve, drew another Transfiguration circle around the pug-like little dragon. Once more, she activated it, and searched with her mind's eye, until she finally found the offending quality hampering the beast's function- something she had, in her eagerness and focus on just making sure the thing would come out alive, as some sort of coherent being rather than a horrible mess, she had missed. But now she grabbed hold of it, and just like the others before, tossed it out of the circle, letting vanish into nothingness. When she was done, she shut it off, and the Dragon Whelp recombined, this time, in a far healthier, lithe form that looked up at her in confusion at what had just occurred. She reached out and pet it gently, sending a few emotional impulses of calm, causing the creature to relax a bit, wander closer. And when it did, Lucille moved to the final part; sending a peice of her own mind over and letting it find a firm place within the beast Lucille Binds the Dragon Whelp! With the thing calmed and now under her control, Lucille picked the young whelp up. And through it's eyes, she saw her own face, looking down at it with those blank eyes, and the expression of mixed pride, and a hint of uncertainty... She had done it. She.... had actually DONE it. The talk with Joe about his supposed Messiah had gotten her thinking about the Transfiguration circle and it's potential, and the walk home had given her plenty of time to, after mulling things over, come up with a mere theory, a hypothesis- the idea that if she was clever enough with it, she could potentially manipulate the traits of an inanimate object in such a way that it would cease to be inanimate, and become a functional life form. Just as this "Jesus" she'd heard of had likely done something similar to change the chemical properties of Water to match that of Wine... she had accomplished something here that was simultaneously quite simple at it's core, but infinitely complex in the potential branches of the idea. What if Jesus had used similar methods when he supposed resurrected the dead, hell, what if, somehow, he had managed to even Transfigure himself at the moment he died, discarded the newly acquired trait of death, and therefore found a way to cheat it altogether... The man she had heard of today, he had to have been a Thaumist. There was no doubt in her mind. She had no idea how, or why, or even when a magus from her world had found his way into another entirely, but... with all the similarities, she couldn't help but find the conclusion the most concrete of any that her mind could conceive. She had been called for this, afterall, along with all the others... whose to say there wasn't need to call more in the past, before all this... perhaps he was a remnant from such an occasion... In the end, she didn't know. And she found it unlikely she'd ever known. But the truth behind whether or not her idea was correct was not what was important here, what was important here was the new life form, the new soul, in her lap. What mattered here was what the idea, and the drive to pursue it regardless of initially flubbing it up, had allowed her to accomplish... Had she always been this... inefficient? This weak of resolve? Had her failures always discouraged her that much, before all this? She'd never thought till about it till now, but... how she'd chosen to take things yesterday certainly ticked a few boxes on that checklist. Maybe she'd been looking at things... quite wrong. Maybe it wasn't the destination itself that mattered, but moreso the journey... Maybe her failures, both recently and in the distant past, were only as big a roadblock as she let them be....

"Huh, well that's...." Tesla stared at the words for a few moments, trying to come up with a suitable.... way to lighten the obvious insult that had been thrust right back into the old man's face... in the most literal sense possible "Interesting... yeh, interesting. Plus, hey look man, it's free gold, that'll come in handy for something down the line." With that said, she looked back up at the barrier "You got anymore weird stuff to throw at it... what did you call it just now- 'mana'? Who knows, maybe we might get a few more useful things out of it..."

Lucille walked into the Warehouse and found the place relatively quiet. It was nice to see the place hadn't either burnt up or been blown to smithereens. She found a box for Do to sharpen his claws- and subseqeuntly his hunting skills -on as she went and laid her bags down, taking out a peice of charcoal from her pocket and begining to set up a fusion circle. Yes, yesterday was not her proudest but... there was no reason to let it scare her out of trying again. She'd just... have to make sure to never touch the dreaded stone again, yes, hopefully that would work. Once the diagram was complete, she'd gotten one of the backs, took out the pack of Kazoos from the toy store, and removed one from it before placing it in one of the circles, extracting a container of salve she'd made back home and putting it one of the others. The third remained empty. With the preparation done, she took out her Stave, spoke the trigger word, and watched as it grew from about the size of a small wand into it's full length as nearly as tall as she was. And she spoke another word, tapping the quartz crystal to the black lines she'd drawn. The glow from the wonder-working was bright as always, and Lucille went to work, breaking the two items down and picking apart the traits she needed most- the power to heal, the nature of sound, musical instruments, and ease of use- but the power to heal more than anything. Soon enough, she'd worked it out to where she had a strong enough feeling that the marriage would work, she finished up the ritual, and let the light die as the raw traits extracted merged into a new form, coelescing in the centermost circle to reveal... A Kazoo. "Eh...." Lucille focused once more, and Scryed the thing before she picked it up. Upon getting the results however, she couldn't help but smile, just a little, it was actually the first time she'd smiled about a ritual since getting nabbed. The thing was simple, but, simple had been part of what she was going for, and it seemed like it would fulfill her purposes rather well. She'd been a bit worried about how she'd replicate the galdur salve, once it ran out... up until now, she'd not used any of it, but that could easily change in due time. And once it was gone... it'd be gone, she didn't know if this world, or others, had any roots with equivalent properties to it, so there was little sense holding out hope to just stumble upon a suitable substitute... With this though, she wouldn't need one. It's restorative potential was about half that as the salve, true, but.... it also had the advantage of being completely reusable... which meant not only could she freely use the healing energy produced in future fusions, but she could also administer it with far less weighing of whether or not it was really worth burning up valuable resources. "Alright, now we're getting Somewhere...this'll make a nice basis for later things," She took the small instrument, and played a single, quick note on it, just to see how it would sound, what the energy would feel like...

Lucille's next, and final stop, was perhaps the largest store of them all within the outdoor mall. According to what Do saw, it was a beige stoned, simplistic facade, held up with square columns and elegant glass work beneath a mighty sign spelling something out she couldn't read, orange and blue letters blazing in the morning sun. Unlike the other stores however, this one didn't seem content to leave its interior open for just anyone to walk in, nor did it's signage provide any imagery beyond its bold fonts. Not that it mattered, considering one Scrying later, and Lucille had obtained both a name and general idea of what was sold... "Hobby Lobby"... an arts and crafts vendor, among other things. Sounded.... useful, to say the least. Do's sight reported that the interior was spartan in decoration, but in the same instance, far neater and more organized than the other places she'd visited. What it lacked in personality or individuality, the store more than made up for in efficient navigation- something Lucille honestly didn't mind, considering it didn't matter how nicely gussied up a place was when you were blind. Though.... Something about the place made her feel... off. The air was sterile, the faint scent of cleaning chemicals lurking just beneath- faint, but still more than heavy enough for her to pick up. Almost like someone went around the place each night, scrubbing nigh religiously to keep everything spic and span, and by the time morning came and they opened, the fumes would fade to the point where most customers probably didn't even notice. That on its own wouldn't have been worth much note, but coupled with the monotonous, calm music playing overhead, the way that the attendants kinds just… stared at her as she'd entered and hadn't stopped even now, and the general atmosphere, it was hard to suppress the on edge feeling she'd known so many times in the forests back home, when some predator or soldier was traipsing about the area and the chances of avoiding a violent run-in were quickly becoming slimmer and slimmer. The constant sound of foot falls which mimicked her own starts and stops, as she checked things out, did not help her mounting paranoia. They were too slow and too clumsy for her to have remained unaware of the person following her from several meters back, trying to duck out of sight whenever she turned around, despite sight not mattering and Lucille always managing to catch them on her sound map. But they were just as persistent at following as they were incompetent, and that was the real problem. On more than one occasion, she'd turned fast enough for even Do to catch them in the act, wearing the khakis, red smock, and name badge of a sales associate. She tried to scry them, but having your heart pumping ever quicker in your chest wasn't exactly the most conducive to entering the type of Zen-like focus required to pierce the veil between realms and draw upon the vast seas of knowledge and truth coursing in-between their boundaries. The most she got out of it was that it was a man, and his name was "Joe". She walked the aisles. Joe continued to shadow, but never advanced beyond a few meters. Soon enough noticing it herself, she eventually convinced herself that whatever he was doing, if there was going be a confrontation like the types she was so used to, it would've already happened by now. Still didn't stop the anxiety, but she continued browsing for a while longer. Eventually she heard a crack of static coming from Joe's hip, a voice calling out something she didn't quite catch given the distance and interference. Joe picked up whatever it was, gave a quick response, and with some reluctance, turned and headed in the opposite direction of Lucille. And as he walked far enough away that it became clear he was done with her, she finally felt herself relax a little, and for the first time since she'd entered the place, she actually devoted her attention on what products adorned the shelves. A Set of silver bells caught her… well, not her eye, and she put them into the handbasket, much like the Kazoos, they could prove useful in their own right later on. Next was some type of modeling kit- a Dragon…. Of all things. Apparently the box contained several sheets of metal with precut shapes one had to poke out and connect into the actual model. She put it in too. Finally, she came across what appeared to be, much to her surprise, some kind of kit for growing various varieties of crystals, along with refills for several of the materials it included. She tossed all of it into the handbasket. Nothing else stuck out; she made her way to the regiester, unloading the items onto the counter and using Do's eyes to count out the money… when something on the upper periphery caught the cat's sight, and more out of curiosity than anything else, she had him look up from inside the bag, ever so slightly. And there, now manning the counter and scanning the items, was none other than Joe. Yet despite the earlier circumstances, the sense of vulnerability had severely diminished by now, after spending so long without him trailing him, and now all Lucille really felt was curiosity. "That will be Seventy-Five dollars, Mam…" "Why were you following me earlier?" He stayed silent for a moment, obviously surprised from the quick flash Do caught in his eyes "…standard policy, Mam." he finally replied "minimize company losses. I was just making sure you didn't do anything here you'd regret… from you're accent, you're probably not from around here, so I'll tell you- we're a rather high end establishment, for this particular…. neighborhood, you see. Occasionally some patrons from said neighborhood enter with less than forthright intentions for their visit, and try to leave without paying." "You thought I was a thief." "I did," Joe admitted, quite readily infact. "And I'm quite glad you proved me wrong, Mam. It would've been a shame if a young lady such as yourself strayed from the Lord's path, and had to have an unpleasant encounter with mall… security." Yes… proved him wrong indeed. Hell, even if she'd wanted to steal something from here, his constant pursuit alone would've been enough to shake that resolve- and now that she had Do take a closer look, she realized that Joe… was actually quite an imposing man. Easily 6"6, barrel chested, a tattoo of a golden cross gracing his right arm and a another, actually real, golden cross adorning the nicely pressed, plaid shirt beneath his shirt. The man looked like he could've easily snapped someone like her in half, if he wanted to. But that wasn't even the worse part- first the bitch at the clothing store, now he was talking about mall security like it was something particularly nasty, that one didn't want to have a run in with if it could be avoided. "Um…y-yeah… me too. Um, do you have to call up security a lot, by any chance?" "Depends how bold the Ne'er do wells are feeling, Mam. Sometimes they see me just happen to appear around the corner of the next aisle, we stop and have a nice little chat, and they put everything down and walk out of my store. And they don't come back. Other times though, weeeell… let's just say the braver, or the more foolish ones, tend to learn painful lessons about how theft harms the economy for everyone. But not as much as it'll harm themselves…speaking of which, Mam, you still owe Seventy-Five dollars." "Uh-huh…" she just nodded, got out the appropriate amount, and slid it over for him to complete the transaction. It was sounding more and more by the minute like the supposed "security" force was actually just a bunch of thugs kept on a leash, rather than actual officers. There were other things she couldn't help but wonder about though… "What's with the plus marks, by the way?" "…." He stared at her, partly indignant at first, but quickly giving way to surprise as he realized, this girl had asked it as a genuine question, not some sarcastic quip. And so he responded with one of his own "Mam, do you mean to tell me you've honestly never heard of Christianity or seen this symbol before? Or Jesus?" "N-no…not really. Who?" He suppressed a slight sigh "You really never heard of Jesus? Well, I suppose, you are pretty young, and lord knows what the world is like nowadays. The basic gist is that Jesus is the central figure of christianity, and his followers, people like me, believe he was the son of god- think of him like a creator, who made everything -who was sent to earth to redeem humanity for its sins and give the opportunity to earn eternal life. he walked on water, turned water into wine, calmed stormy seas just by scolding them, healed the lame and the sick, resurrected the dead and even returned from death himself after sacrificing himself. The last feat is the most important by the way, since it directly relates to how he redeemed humanity." Lucille suppressed the loudest 'hwat' in those moments as he explained everything… that was who Jesus was? A guy who went around, doing a bunch of stuff, that, honest to the mavens, sounded precisely like the type of feats a crafty Thaumist would be able to manage with ease… well, the walking on water and turning blood into wine, maybe the calming of storms… the stuff about death was a bit harder, but still! "Could he have been…?" she muttered the words without even thinking about it, only catching herself when Joe sighed and held up a hand to halt her, shaking his head "Mam, I think I know what you're already going to say, and let me tell you… If I hear one more person make up a theory that Jesus Christ wasn't the son of god, but infact just some type of proto-parahuman, who went around using his powers to curry favor with the poor and amass a cult following…. I may well die right here on the spot." "Oh…" Lucille didn't bother to correct his assumption. What she had almost let out would've been far more asinine sounding to him than what he'd expected to hear… "Uh, sorry, then. Nevermind…. I should probably go now…" "Yes mam," he said, backing the goods, tearing off the receipt, and handing them to her "You should. Have a nice day, and stay out of trouble. I meant it when I said it'd be a shame if a young lady like yourself got in trouble with…. Security." "I'll…. Keep it in mind" by that, she meant she'd get the hell out of this place the minute she was beyond those doors. "thanks…" And with that, she took the bags, walked out, and started off with a brisk pace towards the warehouse, making a mental note that if, or probably, when, she went out shopping again, to head in a different direction or go further out… Lucille bought the following items, sent to reserve

Stellio's hand had instinctively drifted to his blade, as the projected images of the knights in black armor, swarming about some artifact like ants to a peice of carrion, played on screen. He had already drawn it half way out of the scabbard, mind flashing back to the countless encounters of days gone, the garbs and armor of the many foreigners who had played no small part in helping the nation tear itself apart after the death of his Majesty. Only when the weapon finally left it's scabbard and he felt it's weight freely supported in his hands, his subconscious mind already funneling the mana from the environment into it's ebony edge, did he actually snap back to reality, dismiss the called magicks, and shoved the hefty weapon right back into it's sheath, shaking his head at the fact of how far he'd nearly let himself slip. It didn't matter that the knights reminded him all too much of the Loslerians and their lust for the seals beneath the hanging gardens, nor how much a very large part of him, the part all too many had called the Ogre, wanted to depart and slaughter the lot of them immediately. This was now. The war was back then. It was over, finished, the threats to his homeland eradicated and the news of Lodis losing its deadliest knight order beginning to make it's way around the globe. Valeria was whole again, healing, and ruled by his Majesty's rightful heir. The fires of the past were dead and cold. So why could he still not extinguish his own? "I will accompany the squadron that investigates this 'pipeline'," the Knight declared after regaining a hold over his own sanity, though from the stoney resolve of his voice and stance, and the fact his face was covered by a full helm, one would be hard pressed to even know he'd lost some of it just now to begin with "And I would suggest any of you with knowledge of engineering or other such disciplines go as well. I have little experience in such fields myself, but I can present enough of a threat that our foes would be foolish to focus on a few tinkerers fixing what they destroyed, when there's an Ogre tearing through them one by one."

She thought about it for a moment, as the old man got up. Respect her own anger? She never really thought of it like that before; now, she hadn't nessacarily been ashmed of the emotions she felt towards the type of people who bred their own kids to be used and discarded as subjects in experiments as need, not at all, she knew full well that hatred that had blossomed over the years and been fostered by TOM after they met was well justified. But she also hadn't nessacarily been proud of it, either. Considering all she had done in her life, anger had not exactly been helpful in preventing her going down this blood-stained avenue, and it certainly hadn't helped ignore the fact that justified or no, there was blood on her hands, there was blood on her heart, and it would always stay there. She had thought that she merely had to accept it, if it meant that younger ones would grow up to have a better childhood and life overall than she had known, that it did not matter that she became tainted and warped with the drive to kill and destroy, to take vengeance not only for herself, but those without the power to, children who'd been murdered in the past and would doubtlessly be so in the future... by their own damn parents. But... maybe... maybe this blood didn't taint her, in truth. Maybe rather than the mark of murder, the blood she'd split in the past was a sign of karmic retribution, of justice of the purest and simplest variety being meted out. Perhaps she should not damn herself, for what she did, how she did it, what she felt while doing it. For everyone she had ever slain had their own fair share of sins that had gone on with impunity. Every last person she'd slain had sewn unknowable suffering over the course of their careers, and had not been apologetic about it in the least, when the day of reckoning came. Maybe she wasn't a devil after all. Maybe she was simply an angel of death, come to dole out the judgement the authorities were too weak or complacent to. And in the end, that simple fact may not put her totally in the right, but it most certainly did not sink anywhere near as deep into the wrong as the Rogue Science Guilds of Tempest. "....maybe you're right" she said, glancing down at her hands, for a long, long time "maybe I should start respecting it. Maybe I should start respecting myself too. Maybe what I do and how I do it isn't really so bad, in the grand scheme of things..." She lowered her hands to her side, before taking a look around the place, and for the first time, seeing the FULL extent of the destruction. It hadn't simply been the front entrance she'd practically obliterated, for much of the entrance hall, from the point she'd been standing beyond, now bore the obvious signs of melting and the countless pock marks of the withering assault. Perhaps her fire had not been as a focused as she'd thought.... "Well... at least now we know... that trying to blow it to kingdom come won't work. That was just about everything I got, probably would've outright destroyed most of the hall if I'd gone any longer. Yet, not so much as a scratch on the damn barrier. You got any ideas what to try next?"

"Damn..." she muttered, rushing over to where he was and... sure enough, finding the old Orc flat on his back. Perhaps her attack had even more force behind it than she thought, not that it mattered to getting out of here. She walked closer, looking over the Orc, before offering her hand to him "Here take my hand, see if you can get to your feet. And uh... sorry. I just... look, me and cages- or stuff thats the equivalent of a cage -we don't mix well, at all. I've kinda been feeling antsy about it all the way till now, but seeing those assholes just walk away without even trying to contact or help us when they have to know by now that there are still folks trapped in here.... it sent me over the god damn edge. Reminded me of a type of people I used to hunt down..."