Sutoratosu

"I...I can try..." the girl answered, not quite sure herself. It.... it should be relatively though, right? She didn't need to bind them right afterall, simply poking at.... the abomination taking over maybe-sorta-kinda friend would be enough to start off. If Soma was still anywhere near the helm in there, she simply wouldn't even pick it up... or so lucille assumed, the other girl wasn't sensitive to this stuff like she or Proditor was, to her knowledge. Mavens knew what manner of fuckery and biological changes had occurred within her by now... For all I know, maybe the Aragami Cells have eaten through her brain and assimilated it.... like they probably did most of the other "Shut up..." she muttered to herself.

The knight's voice echoed nearby as he approached the prisoners... "Guards? What guards, man? all I see here are the corpses of disgraced failures..." he idly jabbed his lance in the direction the group had come from, letting it sweep over the vista of death and destruction they'd wrought. Even the weapon itself was still coated in the gore of the men he'd slain "Sure, they seem big and bad, when they're beating you into the dirt... but once the field is leveled, the truth becomes painfully clear. These fools have grown too complacent, they lack the competence to put down even as small a rebellion as a couple greenhorns, a knight who's a former shell of himself, and the two-bit rogue leading them all. So long as any of us are standing, you've precious little to worry about from our former....wardens." "It doesn't matter if you can fight or not. Stay behind us and you won't have to worry about them kicking your teeth in. As for your shackles....let me inspect them..." M16, Break Prisoner B's Chains!

"Soma? What-" she didn't bother to finish the thought. It was literal child's play to trace her bond to the chameleon she'd entrusted to the other girl, and the creature had been all too able to show her his perspective from a desk somewhere, peering through a large window at... At something lucille didn't even begin to know how to describe. It seemed like others had already moved in, and whatever had happened, for now it seemed.... contained. She had the beast focus on the creature frozen in place, and the nigh instant recognition in the creature's mind of the one who she'd told it to follow the orders of was enough to set a sinking weight in the pit of her stomach. It was ironic really. She barely knew any of them by name. And of those she did no by name, none of them really felt like anything more than loose acquaintances at best- except for one. And now, somehow that lone individual had begun the process of metamorphosing into some abomination that was barely recognizable as human. To think they had even talked a little about that, not even more than a few hours ago.... and now it was happening. It may not be the explicit result of either of their abilities, from what lucille could tell, bo lo and behold... One way or another, the fleshhorror was happening. "....I'm going with you." Lucille said as she dropped her hold of the beast's senses. She'd already seen far more than enough; infact it was times like these where she was outright thankful to lack sight of her own "I'm not gonna stay up here and do nothing while she's....she's like that..."

"Any of it?" She seemed to almost talk it as a challenge, really. A hand was raised, a fist clenched, and the skin began to ripple, ever so slightly. And then that hand was gone, leaving nothing but shimmering air as the very waves of the light spectrum were bent, bowed, and broken. And then her arm followed, and her shoulder, until she decided that was enough. There'd been a brief signal from her, an internal pulse that had carried over the network of the many pieces of her mind. And from one part in particular, there came a response, a flare of repeated impulses that seemed to beam... packets of instructions to the core of her mind. And thus the core took those instructions, and applied them. Like jury rigging a peice of machinery to have a new function, certain parts of her physiology had... addendums added to them- Orders of how to grow or restructure, etc. Many of these addendums linked together to form their own networks. But it was also clear that something held it back from its logical conclusion. Perhaps it was some unconscious self-preservation, or perhaps it was the subtle cry of refusal Proditor would've sensed from her body, after a certain point. Either way, the mind stopped trying to apply the edits, and simply worked with what it had managed. "I may have sold it a bit short earlier, when I called them a bunch of glorified leashes... guess there's only one way to find out though. If you're willing to try teaching me something, that is..."

"...." Silence. Pure and simple. He would've felt something though, just beneath the surface. But unlike the last time- whatever emotion it was, it was fainter by at least several orders of magnitude, comparable to a faint murmur among a storm of static, or muffled movement in some backroom with a locked door. A door which guarded the way to something that should not be let free, or even gazed upon for that matter. It was ancient. It was subtle. It was the tip of the iceberg. And in the brief few moments that the impulse lasted, it became clear that it was not Lucille herself. "I know." The girl finally answered him "At least, I figured as much, when you mentioned...'altering how someone sees the world' and 'wresting control from them'." It almost seems as though there's the urge to say something more, but again, there is the ancient pulse, as the girl thinks better of it. And just as moments before, it's mere presence is enough to cast a wave of interference like static, before it clears. It was clearly chatter. And it was clearly aware of him. Lucille seems to take no notice of it, as she changes the subject "Um, look, that aside... you're right in a way, I'm not exactly trained with this- best I had was what my brother taught me to do, and the rest.... well..." Gunfire. The sound of automatic weaponry that is quickly cut off by the roar of something massive and a single scream before a sickening, wet squelch and the tearing of flesh takes over. It cuts in, lasts mere seconds, and then she continues "...what else is possible with this power? If I can replicate the other parts of it using my bonds, could you... teach it?"

"What principles do 'Psionics', function exactly?" the girl responded almost immediately, " I mean... this isn't exactly the first time I've talked to someone like this, so I presume it has at least something in common with how I use my Bonds. But, from what I can tell, your shape isn't even touching the floor right now... and all I can manage to do with them is give instructions to anything that can't rationally think for itself, tow them around on invisible leashes-" There was a sudden disruption in the link, as Lucille almost tumbled to floor. She felt a familiar weight walking off her shoulders and heard a cat's hiss retreating to another part of the room, and along with it came the metallic flap of heavy, steely bird wings as Vera took flight, chirping something in quite the indignant tone as she circled just out of Do's reach "Gte yawa rmof em, uyo lnfeie aasgve!" Whatever the hell it meant, it only seemed to anger the kitty. Each stroke of his paw grew stronger, each leap to try and catch her higher "Ouy ilwl nrvee eb erh avrofiet, a haehnte kiel oyu si modode ot iemdciyrto!" Again, whatever the hell it meant, it only served to rile him up even more. But this time the feline got clever about his approach, and instead of feebly clawing and leaping up at her, he took off towards the nearest wall, pounced with his might, turning in the air to plant his hind legs on the plain white facade, before pushing off with all the deftness befitting a cat. The bird never stood a chance, and by the time she realized the danger she was in, Do had her pinned in the floor, teeth trying- and failing -to bite through the steel-like facade of her plumage as he hissed and growled. And soon enough, she realized she is no real danger at all, given how much difficulty he was having. And so she took this time to fire off another quip "Onir si srfote nhta estel, duabsms!" His futile gnawing intensified... The dragons simply watched from afar, morbidly curious as to which would prevail. Lucille finally managed to push herself up from the floor, and the first thing she did was assert control over Do, sending a command over there link so utterly powerful, it caused the cat to jump in fear as the raw force rocked his mind and his little world like a hurricane "NO." He retreated both from Astra, who nigh immediately hopped to her feet unscatched, and lucille as well, scurrying over towards....the Ethereal, ironically. He tried to hide under the folds of his robe, until yet another command came, and the cat was reluctantly trotting back to the girl, whose expression had gone more frigid than glacial ice "She's not food, you little vagrant..." she muttered "None of them, are. You don't try to hunt the others....you don't try to eat the others. You understand me?" "Meeeeeeeeeew..." The cat replied, sinking his head low and retreating a few inches, obviously trying to make himself smaller. If Lucille was a bit more naive, she'd have thought the cat himself understood the words coming out of her mouth. But she knew he didn't. Any response resembling sapient thought was simply the subconscious part of herself riding in his mind acknowledging the order.... she knew he felt her anger though, it was impossible for him not to. Vera of course took the opportunity to return to her rightful place on her master's shoulder, looking down at the cat with an expression that was somehow.... coy, or as coy as a bird could be as she uttered "Htsi si eht enw redor fo ihtnsg, ckuf ybo. Eihret vlie in ym wen orlwd, or ide in ouyr old eon." Do again looked like he was about to pounce. Lucille simply raised an eyebrow as she focused on the pigeon "And you- stop the chatter for a bit, would you? You're not exactly helping the situation, with your gibberish." There was no response, the bird simply began to clean her wings... still wearing that impossibly coy expression. Do continued to eye the winged rat mercilessly, the intent to kill so palpaple it actually took Lucille back a bit. But with a bit of coaxing it was easy enough to make him stand down. "Um...." Once more the connection between her and Proditor was there, as she sighed "so you probably...saw and heard most of that, I'm guessing. Like I said... just a bunch of animals on glorified leashes. In all honesty though, I don't really exert full force with the leashes unless I actually need one of them to help me, a lot of the time it's just simple prompting or leaving them to do whatever... and of course stuff like this happens. And uh.... before you ask why I keep talking to them, when I'm already inside their heads... I don't know. I just do. Force of habit or something..." Or the slow and crushing realization of how engufing one's isolation was. Or that no matter many times they lied to themselves and said they were fine and they needed no one and they had a job to do and couldn't be distracted but such pointless things as conversations, it was just that- a lie. Of course, she didn't say any of that. But the ethereal would doubtlessly have sensed something to that same effect. The girl was either lacking any form of serious practice with her telepathy, or at the least, she wasn't trying terribly hard to not wear her emotions on her sleeve...

So, I heard you guys like Maids from hell? What, you don't? Huh.... well too bad. Because this reserve character is a maid from hell STRATOS RESERVE CHARACTERS: Avalon, the Devil's Handmaid Blank Loadout

"Ethereals?" Not a race she'd heard of, but that wasn't surprising by this point. She had been about to think of another question, when her attention momentarily had lasped, and her senses focused on the confrontation between Arminius and Mirri. Even if they'd been whispering, she'd still have picked them up with little effort- the volume they discussed their little spat however, was practically like a beacon to her. It all had something about.... Testing and a high chance of death? Power? Apparently there was an offer to try and become like the two men they'd met earlier... and it carried it's own special hell if it failed. How ironic.... sounded very familiar. Too familiar almost, in basic concept. The girl had only pursed her lips as they finished arguing and there was a set of footsteps fading from the room. She returned her focus to the mutual bond with the Ethereal, and Proditor likely would've sensed the ample waves of conflict from her, given she neither made an effort to hide it. ".....well, anyway...what exactly is an ethereal, if you don't mind me asking? Do you always communicate like this? Is there more you can do inside other's peoples heads beyond just beaming thoughts?" A subtle shudder followed that last...question.

L17, Hold

B12, Put a few poison knives into the door

Finals are engaging on all fronts at this moment. But rest assured, once the battles are over, a sheet for this will rise from the ashes...

"Oh....uh, sorry about that..." The girl responded sheepishly... "was just...testing something out, it.... it worked a bit better than I expected. And no, I don't think we have either, I'm Lucille. Um.... is there a particular reason why you're not a fan of fire?" she paused for a moment, considering the size of the Ethereal's sonar blip compared to literally everyone and everything "also... what exactly... are you? You're way to tall to be a normal human... and your frame definitely isn't wide enough to be some type of giant..."

Lucille jumped as the sudden scolding echoed through her skull, falling back on the floor unceremoniously. She listened around the room, trying to find the source of the accursed noise which hath no volume control, only to find that despite how fuck all loud it was, she could picked nary hide nor hair of an echo. There wasn't even a subtle vibration through the floors or walls suggesting frequencies too high for even her to detect, and in all honesty she wouldn't have trusted them even if there were. Whoever spoke those words, they definitely weren't a hyper pitched child... "What, who, where, how!?" She shook her head, trying to calm herself. Standing back up and dusting herself off, she went through the possibilities... and slowly realized that how that voice had entered her senses... was quite familiar. Not exactly the same as a mutual bond, but... close enough. Close enough Lucille was willing to prod outward at the shapes she sensed, using a few of her bonds. It was more of an invitation to talk, than an attempt to assimilate and ride, and she poked at each of them in turn, giving the same message "H-Hello? W...Was that you...just now?" and feeling for any response over the link. Or at the very least, if not a response, she listened for any tell-tale shuffling of clothing or bodies turning around... Proditor would've easily felt the girl's mental hailing, once she finally got around to targeting the tallest shape in the room- unwitting of the fact the ethereal even existed or what he even was...

Lucille listened to the conversations, but did not request anything herself. Finding an empty spot- which was exceedingly empty given the room was barren -she went to work on her staff. Not the one Parias had given her, but rather the boring, simple quartz one she'd been using for so many years. From what testing she'd already done with Soma outside, the Cane had far more potential, and it would be easy enough to transfer its most important traits over. All she had to do was take out the crystal from it's setting, and once it was free she began to chant, as her hands once more searched the Cane for an ideal spot... And found one she did. Slipping the Crystal into the spot she'd molded and firmly melding the metal around it was easy; just like that, the old staff had been reduced to nothing but a wooden shaft, and she could feel the thrum of the crystal as it seemed to take to it's new housing. She of course... was not done yet. The thing practically begged to be used, and use it lucille did. Once more her focus brought fire to it's length, gleaming, pearly white licks of flame, flame that even now was waiting to incinerate something, much like an attack dog barely restrained on its leash. She was no stranger to directing energy with precision, however, and rather than let the flames run wild and free, she treated them much like she would a thaumic spell; did the proper calculations, double checked them, then issued the orders to the energies within the cane, all in the span of not even half a second.... A small pop of fire came, but that was about it. She tried again, and again, she heard a bit of noise, felt the temperature rise just a bit and the air pressure shift as it shot forward just a bit, but she knew from how brief it was, it had failed to carry out the instructions she'd so carefully crafted. That was when she got another idea- perhaps it ran on a different operating factor.... much like her Bonds. Perhaps the energy was designed to rely on neural triggers and sheer willpower instead of careful, meticulous math. She tried to direct the fire again, this time doing so much like she'd direct one of her animals, and low and behold, the roar of flames and the sheer intensity of the heat spike left her speechless, hair flying back as a gout of pearly embers erupted from the cane's tip in a furious storm of might. They swirled, coalesced, intermingled until they formed an inferno fully fledged, setting the very air itself alight, quite literally, as Lucille could smell burnt ozone. She willed the storm to stop, and it did, leaving no smoldering embers, no lingering flames, just the stench of burning atmosphere. Despite the heat of her experiment, the floor and walls showed no sign of damage whatsoever, as she hovered a hand near them. All she could do was smirk. She may not have seen the intensity of the fire, but she had felt it all too well, like an extension of herself bursting outwards in an endless torrent. The roar, the heat on her face and hands, the pressure which squeezed against her very being, the scent of charred atmospheric elements.... so this was what it would likely feel like, casting something using one's will? She could only guess, her Bonds were entirely in nature, not meant for such.... flashy displays. of course the feeling of using them had been totally different.... but she could not say that she disliked it. No, quite the contrary.... The power of the cane reminded her of the power she'd tasted before, flowing through her, around her. The raw, unbridled stream of possibilities spawned by effectively unlimited power. This hadn't even been a fraction of that sensation, but it had been nice enough to wet her appetite, and make her realize what she'd been oblivious to all this time.... though she knew full well that it could easily sweep her up, and she could get lost in it and never find her way back.... her mind, her body, her very soul, they WANTED that power again, they hungered and thirsted for it like wild beasts imprisoned in cages hungered for the hunt. And they cared nothing for the consequences that would come with drawing it out again- were her senses lacking in clarity and her judgement muddled, she would've thought little of.... dipping a toe in again, trying once more to fight the restrictions and break open the gates. But the rational, sane part of her shook its head, scoffing at just how easily the temptation had come. The powers she'd used to create the tree were even more.... engulfing than she'd first assessed, if they're sweet whispers lingered even now. And rather than encourage her, the idea made her wonder- what would happen if she really did give in, what would become of her if she let it overtake her.... the rational part of her honestly didn't want to find out. Nor did she want to feel the pain of death all over again.

"Lucille...." was all lucille introduced her with, no description of what she could do, nothing to add to what the others had already said, not even a surname. Even if the rest of them had apparently abandoned all idea of trying to lie their way through until they could reveal everything, she remembered last time. Plus she'd heard mentions of databases and heard one of the natives communicating over telecommunications earlier- chances are this world had enough intelligence gathering devices to know what she did, much like the PRT.... well no, not like the PRT. She still felt their estimate grossly underwhelming. Either way, if they somehow didn't have any inkling, the cabal of young animals which followed at her heels would've given an idea, at the very least. the steel pigeon- Vera, as lucille had named during the flight -perched on her shoulder as Do and the dragons scampered behind, and all of them positively fixated on the blonde haired man- Johannes. It actually took a bit of direct cajoling to prevent Astra from outright attacking the man- she seemed to have a bad habit of that, and lucille made a mental note to check it later. The others seemed content to merely glare at him, and soon enough Lucille could almost taste the unease, it coursed so heavily throughout each of them. She even started to feel on edge herself, as she stood there.... Astra's impulse had been no real surprise, and was easy enough to quash before the little dragon could even act. But for the rest of them to be so.... weary of him right off the bat? Almost struck her as odd. But then, the more that Director Johannes talked, the more and more samples of his voice lucille had to analyze and cross section in her mind. And it started to make a little bit more sense as she did. The strict, cold cadence down to his tone of oh so subtle superiority regardless who he was talking to.... it reminded her all too much of Andral Co. This fucker was probably just another despot in a noble leader's clothes.... just waiting to burst out.

"Why don't we test it then?" Lucille responded "Start small to be safe, record the results, and go from there... like, here" She tapped about with the newly wrought cane until she struck something harder than the barren dirt. With another tap of darksteel against stone, she got a feel for the size of the rock and other factors such as hardness and density, and finally used the walking stick to knock it over to her feet, picking it up and proffering it to Soma. The thing was a modestly sized stone, about the girth of a ping pong ball. It was hard to tell the variety of stone, it looked.... simply like a generic peice of rock and rubble one might find in any post-apocalyptic area. "This," she continued "Stone and Metal are relatively close to each other, in a few ways, so it'll probably be less.... chaotic, wouldn't it? We've got plenty of crystals on the transport, maybe you can experiment with them too?"

"How... unpredictably?" Thinking on it for a moment though, she quickly followed up with "on second thought.... don't answer that if you don't want to. Maybe you can try it out on the spear we made earlier, iron out the whole... chucking-with-extreme-force quirk? Or just make it even more dangerous to try and use...ya know, we should probably try to do something about that thing before someone gets impaled on accident."

Stellio took off his helmet as he stepped further into the room. Not quite what he'd been searching for, but it was definitely close enough. As to who had thought it a good idea to put a forge in the middle of a ship, with the walls left their barren wood finish and only the flooring reinforced to protect against potential fire, he did not know. And by all accounts, he reckoned whoever had made the decision was long dead anyway. He stepped over to the Anvil with the worn tools and Chimney to see if there was anything of even remote interest about any of them. After which his attention turned to searching the room for any remnant of old arms or other gear the previous occupants left behind.

"I see...." Lucille said. She put it on the ground and tested her weight on it, finding the metal adequate. As is, it could've already been used to walk, though a change in form factor wouldn't hurt it. "Do you think you could do this for some of the scrap metal we have, too?" She muttered something under her breath, seemingly at the same time as she spoke to soma- how she did without the entire sentence becoming a jumbling mess of words, it was hard to ascertain, but just as with the many times she done it before, it almost as though.... the mutterings contained no words, nothing to become entangled. Or at least, no words an ordinary person would understand. Being so close, Soma would doubtlessly hear nothing from them, but nevertheless feel an odd vibration in the air as lucille felt her way around the peice of rebar, before settling for which spot would be best to alter: Lucille used Mold on the Darksteel Rebar, Requiring a difficulty check due to being a magic-material After just a few moments, she was done. The vibration Soma would've felt had stopped, and Lucille once again testing the improvised cane on the ground, only to be caught off guard as she made an idle thought about the crackling of flames she'd heard earlier, and finding the implement once more bursting into the fire which roared, yet did not burn. Her, at least. The ground it touched was left with a minute scorch mark. The stench of smoke briefly wafted up to her nose, as she moved the end and left a black line in the dirt. By the time she thought about making the flame stop, there was a thin, half circle scorched into the earth. "Hmmmmmm.... this could be pretty useful.... or fun. Maybe both. Thanks, Soma~"

C15

Stellio walked the halls of the ruined vessel alone, as most of the others seemed to have scattered deeper. This wasn't.... quite like anything he'd seen, back on the isles- fishing and overseas trade were both booming factors to Valeria's economy, before the civil war. But this thing seemed like it was made to tread waters of a...different sort than he was used to. Something felt... off about it however. He had been present to disasters before, seen the aftermath of towns razed, cities raped and burned, and their inhabitants slaughtered wholesale and in some cases raised yet again as thralls.... and this sensation was the very same as when he'd walked through the ruins, every time, listening as the souls of the damned cried out- creating a cacophonous noise which culminated into one thing, and one thing only... The sound of silence. Silence... yes, that was it. Pure and utter. Silence so grand, he could hear the cries of those he had slain even now, with every step forward he took. Bits and fragments of shattered memories and broken dreams- the residual energies of too many men and women to count, as they writhed in the agony of death. Energies which stuck to a Terror Knight like flies to honey. "How many might cry out here, if one were to listen?" The knight pondered to himself "How is it that so much death is tied to this place, this derelict? An instrument of war, in it's day and age? Or perhaps something yet more sinister..." He kept walking, hoping to find the answer to his own question. If this truly had been a warship, it would have an armory at the very least, and barracks to house the crew and any troops it transported... Stellio attempts to find the Ship's Armory/Barracks (Or whats left of them)

"Huh- oh.... thanks?" Lucille said, as the rebar was pressed into her hand. At the crackling and odd signatures coming off of it, she was half afraid Soma had simply lit a branch or something alight and handed it to her... which would've said quite a bit in "thanks" for the chameleon. Hefting the thing in her hands however, she came to realize that despite the crackling of flames, she smelled no smoke, felt no heat or pain even as she inched her hands further up the length. The metal itself was.... odd though, felt like nothing else she'd ever held. The weight, handling, and the way sound echo'd of the material when she clicked at it, all came together to paint a totally foreign picture in her mind. "Um.... what is it, exactly? You said you made it yourself?"

"Not really..." Arya shrugged. Whatever it was, it probably was the same thing that had distracted the girl back on the trail. Not like it really involved them. And the girl had outright said she didn't want them around. Plus if anything, it'd be best if they kept that.... little discussion earlier to themselves, no point sharing it with an instructor. "Guess we'll head there on our own, then. Where is it?"

"'Yep'.... that's it? That's... all you gotta say after they sent you to trek out here after us, like a red shirt?" It was kinda odd, Arya figured whoever would've come to fetch them would complain about how they wasted their time with that stunt, or try and lecture them about not running off, kinda like a teacher's pet. Infact, a teacher's pet was exactly who'd she'd been expecting. The girl almost seemed distracted by.... something. Something Arya wasn't about to go to the effort of prying, nor did she really care enough to linger on it. They still had shit to fix, and the less bitchin' there was in the kitchen, the better. "Well, alright" Arya shrugged "You might as well lead the way back"

Maya had remained silent through the whole conversation. She'd tried to give the benefit of the doubt to Anna's kin, convince herself they couldn't all be quite as.... well... it was difficult to ascertain the precise words. Eccentric? Yes, very much so... Sociopathic? Hmmmm.... there were hints of it, here and there... such as when Anna had caved in that man's skull over one remark, yes... Greedy, Selfish, short-sighted, and somewhat irresponsible? yes, all of those too... Petty? Oh most definitely, the passive aggressive cat fight just now cemented that. By the end of the introductions and the stories, it was just about all Maya could do to simply smile and nod whenever she was directly mentioned. She simply began to tune things out, once Anna Clara grabbed some poor girl from one of the tables. To think, she'd been worried. Well, she'd been right too. But not about whatever past ecquis and the other Anna might've had, but the fact that, as far as she could see, there was a nigh carbon copy of Anna running around on this earth, and apparently, there were several more clones as well, somewhere. She pondered whether or not the remaining sisters of their clan shared their same.... she would be nice and call them 'Quirks'. Just as much as she tried to ponder the probability of one woman giving birth to several daughters who looked as similar as Anna Marie and Anna Clara did to each other. Astronomical, I'm sure.... You should really lighten up you know? It is a party, afterall. Didn't you say we were gonna celebrate that cloudy bitch's death? A bit hard to celebrate when you're dead, don't you think? she chuckled, at what, was anyone's guess But fine, I guess you have a point...